WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan appeared at Donald Trump’s ‘mega-rally’ in New York City last night and endorsed the former president in front of thousands of adoring fans.
Tens of thousands of Trump supporters flocked to a sold-out rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, in the middle of the city that is a longtime Democratic stronghold.
Hogan, opening for Trump, made a surprise appearance onstage in full wrestling garb at the event, hyping the crowd of ‘Trump-a-maniacs’ with talk of body-slamming opponents and declaring ‘This is the house that Hulk-a-mania built!’
Addressing protesters outside the venue who beamed the phrase ‘Trump Praised Hitler’ onto the side of the arena, Hogan said: ‘You know something, Trump-a-maniacs? I don’t see no stinking Nazis in here. I don’t see no stinking domestic terrorists in here.
‘The only thing that I see in here are a bunch of hard-working men and women that are real Americans, brother. You know what I hear in my president and our president Donald Trump, he sounds for real, brother.’
He also appeared to reference the viral ‘Hawk Tuah’ video when addressing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, spitting into the microphone as he said ‘When I hear Kamala speak… it sounds like a script from Hollywood with a really, really [spitting sound] bad actress!’ to enthusiastic cheers.
As he left the stage, Hogan attempted to sign off by tearing his shirt off- a crowd-pleasing trick from his WWE days. But the elderly wrestler visibly struggled to rip the garment, drawing jeers and sarcastic remarks from anti-Trump protesters online.
Madison Square Garden reached its capacity of around 20,000 in the mid-afternoon on Sunday, hours before Trump spoke. Another 20,000 people who did not make inside were estimated to be watching on a big screen outside and at surrounding streets, said a New York Police Department officer at the scene.
The crowd inside and outside the rally, which took place nine days before the presidential election, were peaceful.
Trump was introduced by Melania in what was her first appearance at any of his rallies in the 2024 election cycle. She wore a zebra print dress and welcomed fellow New Yorkers.
‘Our hometown, where architectural symbols of strength, courage and unity, create a canvas for the world’s undisputed capital of industry,’ she said.
‘Where titans of finance, fashion and entertainment convene among an iconic range of superior design, structures and artistic accomplishments.’
She then called up her husband and embraced him. Trump kissed his wife on the cheek on stage.
The Republican candidate started off his speech by echoing the words of former Republican President Ronald Reagan in his final week of campaigning against ex-President Jimmy Carter.
‘I’d like to begin by asking a very simple question: are you better off now than you were four years ago?’ said Trump.
‘I’m here today with a message of hope for all Americans… This will be America’s new golden age.’
He added, to cheers: ‘Kamala, you’re fired.’
Trump displayed on the jumbotron a chart of illegal immigration into the US that he credited with prompting him to turn his head and survive an assassination attempt during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
‘A chart that I love very much because I wouldn’t be here tonight,’ he told the crowd, before attacking migrants.
‘On Day One, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out. I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious criminals in jail.’
Trump also said that becoming president comes with ‘a hell of a shot at dying’.
‘I never knew that when I ran. I never thought about it, but here we are,’ he said.
‘And I’m OK with it. And I would rather be here than any place in the world. It’s called a very dangerous profession. But if we win, our enemies won’t be laughing anymore.’
Trump complimented Elon Musk for his ‘dark MAGA’ hat that has been popular with fans, and said that his youngest son Barron Trump was at home watching and is ‘the king of the internet’ for advising him on podcast interviews.
The former president concluded that New York ’embodies the spirit, energy and potential of the American people’ and that ‘it would be such an honor to win New York, hasn’t been done in decades’.
He ended the rally waving at the crowd alongside Melania with a singer performing a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York.
‘I get emotional when I see so many supporters,’ Bronx resident Joanna Rivera, 42, told Metro outside of the arena. ‘There’s a sense of togetherness.’
Manhattan resident Lea Pi, 71, left the Garden calling it ‘the best day I’ve ever had’.
‘It was the most exciting event. Everyone that spoke was extraordinary,’ said the retired construction project manager and residential property manager.
‘Everyone gave a clear message of what we want with health, education, it was very well run and I really think that New York just might flip. I think it’s possible.’
Long Island resident Cynthia Ogando, 70, took pictures of the speakers and had her photo taken standing midway up the stands at Madison Square Garden with a sea of MAGA fans and red, white and blue in the background.
‘Just the feeling of being in the same arena as him feels different’ than watching Trump on TV, she said.
‘It’s in person, we enjoyed it.’
The retired dietician who moved to the US from the Philippines 40 years ago denounced ‘open borders’ and inflation in the country.
‘We are really suffering. Illegals are getting (things) for free, it’s not fair. Otherwise we would just go home to our third world countries,’ she said.
Ogando added: ‘Melania, she is awesome… She is really beautiful. We love her.’
A river of people spanning more than a block waited in line to get into Madison Square Garden in Manhattan early Sunday afternoon.
As cops slowly let the crowd through barricaded sections of the street, they chanted, ‘USA, USA, USA, Trump, Trump, Trump.’
On a rooftop near the arena, at least two snipers were spotted overlooking the crowd ahead of the rally for Trump.
People of all ages and ethnicities lined up on 33rd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues. Some wore red MAGA hats, others Trump flags over their backs.
Queens resident Nick Lauda, 24, and his friend said they lined up around 12.15pm because it ‘would be cool to see him (Trump) in person’.
‘I think it shows how well he’s doing if he was able to get this venue because I don’t know if he would have been able to four to eight years ago,’ said Lauda, who has been supporting Trump since his first run in 2016.
Lauda said he thinks Trump will win the election because polls have shown the Republican candidate leading in some swing states.
‘Polls already skew Democratic so I think he’s up by a lot,’ he said.
‘You have a good feeling but you never know.’
Outside the arena, people sold MAGA hats, flags and merchandise, a scene not typically seen in New York City which is majority Democrat.
A British woman, who declined to give her name because she said her friends would not speak to her for supporting Trump, lined up for the rally – even though she cannot vote.
She said she supports Trump’s plans to secure the border and finds it unbelievable that it is frowned upon to voice support for the former president in New York City.
While waiting outside close to the Madison Square Garden entrance, David Schey, 64, said he came for ‘all the people’. It was the fourth Trump rally he has attended.
‘It’s the same spiel over and over, it’s a show,’ he said of Trump’s speeches.
‘You’ve met very nice people, right? No violence.’
The resident of Deer Park, Long Island, added that he thinks Trump is ‘the best bet to get us back on track’ because ‘I don’t know where we’re heading to’.
‘I think he’s the strongest candidate, especially to be on the world stage right now,’ he said.
Brooklyn resident Maria Cordones, 68, wore a Trump flag around her shoulders and said Trump was sent from God to end wars.
‘I came here from church, I was praying because God wants him to be president. He promised he would end the war within 24 hours. I am Christian and we don’t believe in war and bloodshed,’ she said in Spanish.
Cordones, who moved from the Dominican Republic to New York in 1997 and is a chaplain who works with prisons, said she is not a political person but that no other candidate has promised to end wars.
‘Trump is taking a risk because there have been assassination attempts and he is choosing to do this instead of retiring,’ she said.
Rivera, who attended Trump’s rally in May in the Bronx where she lives, said she didn’t think the crowd at Madison Square Garden would be as big as it was. The social worker whose family is from Puerto Rico had Trump on her cell phone lock screen said she came alone.
‘I support his vision, his views on abortion and the number one reason is he is adamant about decreasing the number of illegal immigrants coming in and killing our people, taking our jobs,’ she said.
‘He’s not a puppet – he has a mind of his own, had no filter.’
Though she didn’t get into the arena and was watching a big screen of the rally outside, she said, ‘I’m not leaving until he comes out.’
The rally comes a day after Donald Trump took a dig at Beyoncé for attending an event for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump, 78, said at a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, yesterday that ‘Joe Biden is asleep’ while Harris is ‘at a dance party with Beyoncé,’ referring to the Democratic presidential candidate’s appearance with the hit singer at her rally in Houston, Texas.
Harris was caught jokingly swearing at a bar in Michigan yesterday as she met with the governor Gretchen Whitmer in the crucial swing state.
She joked the media was ‘listening to everything’ before noticing the media surrounding them.
‘I didn’t notice that. We just told all the family secrets, s***,’ she said.
Musk has raised some eyebrows after appearing at a town hall event in Pennsylvania yesterday where he claimed it is possible aliens are ‘here right now.’
The SpaceX billionaire has pledged to give a randomly chosen winner $1,000,000 until the US election on Tuesday, November 5 – a move which has been branded ‘deeply concerning’ by experts.
‘I’m not just MAGA; I’m Dark Gothic MAGA,’ he said.
Musk, whom Trump has promised a role in his administration if elected, added he could cut $2trillion from the budget.
In the days leading up to the rally, some Trump opponents had floated the idea of trying to reserve rally tickets online and not showing up so Madison Square Garden would be on the emptier side.
