Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk.
Credit: Reuters Photo
By Josh Wingrove
Donald Trump turned to the home stretch of his campaign with a marathon rally in the heart of Manhattan, flanked by Elon Musk and other allies aiming to frame voters’ decision around who can fix America’s woes.
Trump’s event at the fabled Madison Square Garden, which lasted for nearly six hours Sunday, featured criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris over the border, crime and the economy. Trump mused about safely Democratic New York flipping to his column, painting a view of an America gripped in crisis.
“We must defeat Kamala Harris and stop the radical left agenda with a landslide that is too big to rig,” Trump said.
He was joined by roughly two dozen speakers, from celebrity wrestler Hulk Hogan to House Speaker Mike Johnson to Musk himself, who is campaigning for Trump and pouring money into the race. Some of the speeches included fraught remarks about Puerto Rico, Palestinians and Black Americans.
Musk predicted he could find $2 trillion in cuts in a Trump administration, a massive target that would fundamentally reshape government spending.
“Your money is being wasted,” said Musk, the final speaker aside from Trump and his wife Melania in a rare appearance during the campaign. “We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook.”
The event at the iconic venue was intended to command the media spotlight and mobilize the former president’s supporters about a week before Election Day. Trump’s campaign had promised a spectacle, and thousands of people lined up along city streets hours before the rally kicked off shortly around 3 pm at the packed arena that has a 20,000-person capacity.
Government Spending
New York isn’t considered a battleground state for a presidential race polls show is close between Trump and Harris, though it has several competitive House races that could decide control of the chamber. Still, the distinctive setting of Madison Square Garden — host to some of the nation’s biggest cultural moments — offered a stage to help the Republican nominee amplify his message beyond his base, including undecided voters.
It was something of a capstone for Trump, who rose to fame in New York only to be shunned by many of its figures as president. It’s also the city where a jury earlier this year found him guilty of 34 felony accounts of falsifying business records.
Trump has said he would ask Musk, the world’s richest person and a major donor to his campaign, to head up an effort to cut government spending, nicknamed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a reference to a cryptocurrency Musk has embraced.
Critics have said this position would represent a conflict of interest for Musk. The companies he runs, including Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, have billions of dollars worth of federal contracts and have benefited from federal spending, including electric vehicle tax credits and infrastructure investments.
Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s Howard Lutnick asked Musk on stage how much he could “rip out of” the budget under President Joe Biden and Harris. Musk responded, “Well, I think we can do at least $2 trillion, yeah.”
The $2 trillion target represents nearly a third of existing spending. The federal government spent $6.75 trillion in fiscal year 2024, according to the Treasury Department.
Musk has spent at least $132 million to elect Trump and other Republicans in 2024, federal filings show. That level of giving has vaulted him into the upper echelon of political donors, making Musk one of the most prolific contributors of the entire 2024 cycle.
Controversial Speakers
The speeches also included controversial comments that undercut what at other points were messages of national unity from Trump. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, joked that Harris was a trailblazer as the first “Samoan-Malaysian low-IQ” person who could be elected. Harris would actually be the first Black woman and the first Indian-American in the White House.
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Several speakers also urged supporters to be sure to vote, to bring people to the polls and to vote early. “You line up like you’re the third monkey in line for the ark, and it’s starting to rain,” Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. said.
At the event, Trump unveiled a credit for caregivers who take care of family members. The Republican nominee didn’t provide details or say how he would pay for it. His litany of tax proposals already includes benefits for tipped workers, hourly employees, senior citizens and higher-income residents of Democratic-led states whose tax breaks he took away while president.
Harris has proposed expanding Medicare to cover home care services. She’s also proposed to expand tax credits for parents and boost deductions for startup businesses, offset by increasing levies on corporations and wealthy households.
Trump has said he would raise fresh revenue from across-the-board tariffs, which he aims to impose on imports from US allies and adversaries alike. Economists have warned tariffs won’t offset the price tag of his tax cut ideas and could increase costs on US households.