The MAGA masses descended on New York City yesterday. They came in their thousands, a sea of red caps and fluttering Stars and Stripes.
For 24 hours, this gleaming citadel of East Coast liberalism fell to big men with beards and women in zip-up tops chanting “Kamala is dumb!”. It was some sight.
They were there to see the man himself, who was holding a rally at Madison Square Garden.
His likeness glared down at us from the vast digital billboard above the entrance to MSG.
“DREAM BIG AGAIN!”, the electronic Trump instructed the throng that had gathered at 8th Avenue and 31st Street to express their love – or hate – for the MAGA king.
It felt jarring to see so many Trump-heads in this town where virtually every bodega sells Kamala caps and where you can get a “Dogs for Kamala” t-shirt in Union Square.
The invaders – as I’m sure the bourgeois New Yorkers on their way to Sunday brunch viewed the incoming Trumpists – were out bright and early.
I saw “Asians for Trump” marching down Broadway at 9.30am. They held aloft both a Trump flag and the Japan flag.
Later I saw “Jews for Trump”. One was wearing a MAGA yarmulke. Another’s skullcap said “Kippa Merica Great”, which took me a second to get, but I laughed when I did.
Pick-up trucks emblazoned with the name “TRUMP” hurtled down avenues normally occupied by beeping yellow cabs and people on bikes.
All made their way to Madison Square Garden. Forget the rally itself, which caused a stink after Trump’s warm-up act, the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, cracked some controversial jokes.
It was outside the rally, on the heaving streets of Manhattan, that the two tribes of US politics really locked horns.
Kamala fans showed up to shout down the Trumpists. “Welcome to your Nazi rally!”, a woman who described herself as the “aunti-fascist” hollered at the MAGA crew.
A swarm of Democrats assembled on the steps of Penn Station opposite MSG. They held up placards featuring one-word descriptions of Trump. “Loser”, said one. “Liar”, said another. There was also “Rapist”, “Psychopath”, “Convict” and “Unfit”. Subtle it was not.
And the expletives! I’m not coy but even I was shaken by all the swearing.
Someone had scrawled “EAT A—, TRUMP” across the sidewalk of 8th Avenue. A gang of sad-looking antifa activists waved a black-and-white flag that said “F— TRUMP”. “Get the f— out of New York City!”, Kamala fanboys yelled at Trump supporters.
The Trumpists gave as good as they got. One of them played on a loudspeaker a rap version of Trump saying “They’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs”, in reference to his thin claims about Haitian migrants cooking pets in Ohio.
It was at that point that I felt like I’d been transported into a farce. One side yelling about Nazis and psychopaths, the other blasting out a tinny ditty about cat-eating.
It felt like a comedy version of the American Civil War. It was a mostly pantomime clash, where the point was not to convince the other side, or even to engage with it, but just to hurl insults and make fun.
There were some surreal moments. I saw a black lady draped in a neon-pink Trump 2024 flag being called racist by a bunch of white TikTok kids. Eh? And it struck me as insensitive – to say the least – when a man holding up a “Jews for Trump” banner was told “Welcome to your Nazi rally”.
My takeaway is that both sides are a tad crazy, but the MAGA side at least has some fun with it. There was a knowingness to their provocations. Like when they played Trump saying “They’re eating the cats” – it’s not necessarily that they think Haitians are chowing down on moggies, but rather that they know this tall tale irritates the hell out of PC New Yorkers.
The Kamala camp, by contrast, seemed to be in the grip of existential dread. They really believe Trump is a psychopath who will turn this great republic into a Nazi hellhole.
Calm down? Such fretting is not only fact-lite – Trump might be annoying, but he’s not Hitler. It also can’t be good for one’s health. I worry whether “aunti-fascist” is getting any sleep.
So there, on 8th Avenue, was America’s tribal divide. Fearful Leftists pitted against mocking Right-wingers. Not one mind was changed, but it was a good day out.