Speaking on Tuesday from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump praised his recent Madison Square Garden rally ― an event filled with racist rhetoric and messages similar to those at a pro-Nazi rally once held at an earlier iteration of the same venue ― as a “lovefest.”
“The love in that room, it was breathtaking. ... It was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest, and it was my honour to be involved,” Trump said of his event where he called immigrants “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals” and a comedian onstage referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”
“And I’ll tell you right now,” the Republican presidential nominee continued, “nobody’s ever had love like that. That was love in the room, and it was love for our country.”
“Lovefest” is the same word he once used to describe the deadly Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 ― an event where his supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” threatened members of Congress and violently assaulted police officers, all in Trump’s name.
Speaking Tuesday, the former president also mocked comparisons of his New York rally to a 1939 pro-Nazi gathering held at a previous version of the venue.
“They started to say, ‘Well, in 1939, the Nazis used Madison Square Garden,’” Trump said of critics who pointed out both events included strong nativist themes. Supporters in attendance booed.
“Can you imagine, ‘In 1939, the Nazi’ … How terrible to say, right, because you know, they’ve used Madison Square Garden many times,” Trump continued.
Instead of denying claims that he’s campaigning with messaging similar to that of Adolf Hitler, Trump has largely taken issue with “Hitler” and “Nazi” as bad words people shouldn’t say. At his Atlanta rally Monday night, Trump told the crowd his father told him to “never use the word Nazi” or mention Hitler. He also tried to use the comparisons to attack his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, falsely accusing her campaign of saying “that everyone who isn’t voting for her is a Nazi.”
The discourse around Trump and Hitler comparisons comes the week after John Kelly, a former Marine general and Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, told media outlets Trump once praised the German dictator and said he wanted staff like “Hitler’s generals,” remarking on their loyalty.