Donald Trump closed a rambling, lie-filled “press conference” on Tuesday by taking no questions and raving about his so-called “lovefest” of a political rally at Madison Square Garden.
The hour-long press event, held at Mar-a-Lago, was an opportunity for Trump to disavow racist jokes made at Sunday’s rally by Tony Hinchcliffe, which included the right-wing comedian referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
Trump made no mention of the ill-advised joke that has peeved Puerto Ricans and their millions of loved ones in places like Philadelphia, New York, and in Florida, the very state Trump was speaking in on Tuesday. Instead, Trump decided to gush over the “breathtaking” amount of love that he claims to have felt in MSG.
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“There’s never been an event so beautiful,” Trump said. “Was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest, and it was my honor to be involved.”
Trump’s campaign distanced him from the Puerto Rico joke, but he’s yet to personally address it beyond claiming to ABC News on Tuesday morning that he didn’t know Hinchcliffe and that he—somehow—hadn’t heard his tasteless remark.
Trump noted at his event Tuesday that Democrats had likened his rally to a 1939 event in the same arena that was held by American Nazis—a comparison he remarked was “terrible.”
“Many people have used [MSG], but nobody has ever had a crowd like that,” Trump said. “And I tell you what, right now, nobody’s ever had love like that. That was love in the room, and it was love for our country. It was really love. So we’re going to fight like hell for the next seven days, and then hopefully, and most importantly, we’re going to be fighting even harder for the next four years, because we’re going to turn this around and we’re going to make this country greater than it has ever been.”
That was Trump’s closing remarks before he walked off stage as “Y.M.C.A.” started blaring over speakers. That put a wrap on the event, which began more than an hour late.
While Trump briefly addressed his hate-filled MSG rally, it was clear the crux of Tuesday’s event was to rail against Harris and tie her to issues with the southern border. He had guest speakers who detailed how their lives were shattered by violence at the hands of undocumented immigrants.
Trump also made yet another mention of Springfield, Ohio, but not to declare—as he proudly did throughout September—that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets. He still had nasty words for the migrants, however, a majority of which are in the U.S. legally with temporary protected status.
“They tried to give them legal terminology, but it’s not,” Trump said. “Illegal aliens, 32,000 into a 50,000 person town, a beautiful town, no problems, and now they don’t know what to do.”
Trump claimed the Haitian migrants had taken over the city’s hospital and that the city’s natives are struggling to see a doctor—a pair of unsubstantiated claims that local officials in the city have shot down as false.
“The whole town has changed and this is happening all over our country,” Trump claimed.
The former president also vowed that, as president, he’d seize “the assets of the criminal gangs and drug cartels” and use money generated to start a “compensation fund” that would support the loved ones of victims of cartel crimes. Trump did not detail how exactly he’d accomplish such a thing or what sort of crimes would make a victim’s family eligible.
Trump also mentioned the thriving U.S. economy on Tuesday, but bizarrely claimed it’s only been doing so well because the markets believe he’s destined to take back the presidency.
Trump appeared to stray from his talking points at times on Tuesday. That included when he took personal shots at Michelle Obama, who he said was “very nasty” to him over the weekend. He indicated he especially took issue with her criticisms because, according to him, he was “always very respectful of her.”
“She got up there, which shows you how how nervous they are about what’s happening, but she was nasty two days ago—she got up and said some bad things she shouldn’t have said,” Trump said of Obama.
Trump’s anger at the former first lady appears to stem from her grilling him at a Harris campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday.
“I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn,” Obama said. “I hope that you’ll forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behavior, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slum lord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse.”
