Trump to rally at New York's Madison Square Garden

New York's Madison Square Garden is often billed as the "world’s most famous arena."

For music stars, a gig at "the Garden", as it's colloquially known, is confirmation that you’ve finally made it.

And it’s not just music, of course.

Historic sporting events have taken place there - like the championship boxing match, dubbed the "Fight of the Century" between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier in 1971.

And then there’s the politics.

It was at Madison Square Garden - albeit in a previous location across the street - that Marilyn Monroe delivered her breathy rendition of "Happy Birthday" to sitting president, John F. Kennedy, in 1962.

Going further back, it hosted an event that fans of New York’s iconic venue would probably prefer to forget.

In 1939, Madison Square Garden hosted a Nazi rally, drawing a crowd of some 20,000 to hear an address by Fritz Julius Kuhn, leader of the pro-Hitler German American Bund. The venue was decorated with huge wall-hangings bearing swastikas, American flags and a likeness of George Washington.

It’s that infamous event that Donald Trump’s critics have been at pains to highlight ahead of his rally at the Garden this afternoon.

"President Franklin Roosevelt was appalled that neo-Nazis, fascists in America were lining up to essentially pledge their support for the kind of government that they were seeing in Germany," Hillary Clinton who lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump told CNN.

"I don't think we can ignore it," she said, adding "please open your eyes to the danger that this man poses to our country because I think it is clear and present for anybody paying attention."

This week, Vice President Kamala Harris also affixed the "fascist" label to the former president, citing comments by Mr Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff. Retired general John Kelly alleged his former boss had expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler. Mr. Trump’s spokesperson said the allegation was false.

Donald Trump took to social media, calling it a sign that Kamala Harris was losing.

And in a joint statement, Mr Trump’s supporters House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Ms Harris of "fanning the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus," citing the assassination attempts on the former president this summer.

"Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over," they wrote.

"The Vice President’s words more closely resemble those of President Trump’s second would-be assassin than her own earlier appeal to civility," they added.

With just over a week to the election, rhetoric is getting heated.

Today’s rally is being seen as Mr Trump’s closing argument to the wider nation as they go to the polls.

But Madison Square Garden is also a famous site in the city of his birth, the playground of his youth and a place where he retains huge power and influence.

This event could also be a play for New York too, some strategists believe.

New York is one of the bluest states in the country, but Republicans made some gains in congressional seats in the 2022 midterm elections, which helped them to win them a narrow majority in the House of Representatives that year.

But it was also in this city that a jury found the former president guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to a porn actress, ahead of the 2016 election.

And the city where the former president could face jail, if the judge in the case sentences him to prison on November 26th, three weeks after the election.

Mr Trump has dismissed the case, and others, as a "witch hunt," saying the real verdict would be delivered by the American people on election day.

He has vowed to seek retribution against "enemies from within" if he wins the White House next Tuesday.