‘I don’t see no stinking Nazis here!’ Daily Mail goes behind the scenes at Trump’s Madison Square Garden extravaganza – and reveals the surprising truth about the MAGA crowd that turned NYC red

As he entered Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening, the former president paused as he took in the wild applause of 20,000 singing, screaming groupies.

Donald Trump, perhaps the world’s greatest showman, had taken his campaign to the world’s biggest stage – ironically, in a city he believes wants to destroy him – to make his final bid for the presidency.

From the metropolis where he continues to face 34 felony convictions in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case, the real estate mogul declared, “I’m back in the city I love.”

His eldest son Donald Jr. had previously delivered that theme to the roaring MAGA hordes in spectacular fashion: “The King of New York is back to reclaim the city he built.”

Certainly, that feeling was reciprocated both inside and outside the arena.

The streets were teeming with tens of thousands of Trump supporters. And those were the ones that didn’t make it into the packed 19,700-seat arena.

All kinds of MAGA fans had traveled from far and wide to reach the Big Apple. There were “Jesus for Trump” supporters, “Jews for Trump,” and even a group of “Japanese for Trump.”

While waiting in line, 62-year-old Amy Lee told me that she had fled communist Vietnam in 1975 and that her husband Covan had been caught 18 times trying to escape before finally joining her in the United States. States.

This was Lee’s 60th Trump rally and the couple had traveled from San Diego, California. “We don’t take freedom for granted,” she said. ‘We don’t want to lose this country. There is no other place to run to.”

Sue Caddoo, 58, from Putnam County, New York, said: “Trump is taking down the deep state and so many people are unaware that a deep state even exists.”

In The Garden, in downtown Manhattan, the scene of so much combative history, controversy, music, sportsmanship and despair – Trump’s supporters got what they came for… eventually. A Trump rally requires patience and endurance.

The five-hour show was a carefully designed and controlled spectacle, with the audience tossed between showbiz razzmatazz and speakers looking forward to warm-up acts before the warm-up acts.

There were shouts and foul-mouthed shouts, and a comedian delivering an astonishing insult to Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million residents.

The star-studded cast included vice presidential candidate JD Vance, Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the usual Trump family clan, his flamboyant lawyer Alina Habba, former New York mayor Rudy Guiliani and even fallen former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Senior Trump adviser Dan Scavino was the first to deny parallels were being drawn by Democrats, comparing the meeting to a Nazi rally at The Garden in 1939.

Retired WWF wrestler Hulk Hogan did the same, but in a more candid way. He stormed onstage in a fluorescent red boa and ripped off his shirt to the thumping “Real American” soundtrack, declaring, “I don’t see any stinking Nazis here.”

Failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy delivered an incendiary performance, including a promise to kick “three million bureaucrats out of the deep state.”

And Musk, who has given a whopping $119 million to help Trump win the White House, was of course exuberant with the shades of an excited schoolboy. He claimed he could save the country $2 trillion with a “government efficiency department.”

But the event was almost silenced in the opening minutes when controversial comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked: ‘There is literally a floating island of rubbish in the ocean. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.’

The comments drew anger from many quarters, including Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin and a rare rebuke from Team Trump, which is often so reluctant to admit its mistakes.

The man himself finally appeared just before 7.15pm – more than two hours late – and was introduced by his wife Melania, who stunned the audience with a surprise appearance, glittering on stage in a zebra-patterned dress.

It was the first campaign rally the former First Lady attended this year — and although she attended the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July, she did not speak at the time.

“Let’s work together on a shared vision that builds on American greatness,” Melania told the cheering thousands. “Let’s seize this moment and create a country for tomorrow – the future we deserve.”

“New York City and America need their magic back,” she smiled and said simply, “And now….”

He was on.

Walking toward Melania to the sound of Lee Greenwood’s God Bless The USA, the pair kissed three times on the cheek and locked in a long hug.

This was no time to be hasty.

And although the former president delivered a tighter performance, without the verbal ramblings that plagued many of his recent speeches, within fifty minutes several thousand were on their way to the exits.

Not out of boredom, but perhaps because these supporters might have seen enough of the man they think can take America in a different direction. We all know the messages by now.

“This will be America’s new golden age.”

“Kamala, you’re fired!”

‘We are going to make America affordable again.’

“The United States is an occupied country… in nine days it will be Liberation Day.”

After an hour and twenty minutes the time had come. Trump and Melania together again on stage in The Garden. A male singer singing Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’.

Trump certainly came, he saw and promised to conquer the city and state that has not turned red since Ronald Reagan’s landslide re-election in 1984.

Heather Ptak, 48, dressed in all red leather, said: “This is the place for him. This is the place for those who dream and it’s time to dream big again. He’s a fighter. He’s a fighter. He continues to stand up for the people and I think that’s great.’

The oft-repeated words “fight, fight, fight,” famously uttered by Trump shortly after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania in July, were a theme of the evening.

It matched a location that famously hosted the first of two fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, with Ali losing the first bout in 1971.

Ali ‘The Greatest’ refused to publicly admit defeat to Fraiser and when they faced off again in 1974. That time he won.

Trump’s history with Madison Square Garden has yet to be written.