MSG mega rally: a closer look at Trump’s campaign

NEW YORK: Former United States president Donald Trump held his biggest rally yet on Sunday at Madison Square Garden (MSG), just days away from the November 5 election. A lot of tall claims reiterated by the aspiring president had little roots in truth, not that it stopped his supporters from cheering his every move.

“I will end inflation, I will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country, and I will bring back the American dream,” Trump said, as he attempted to downplay his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, while making baseless claims regarding criminal migrants, inflation, and war.

“Kamala, you’re fired, get out, get out,” the Republican candidate said as he was showered with cheers from the crowd.

ECONOMY

Trump often claims to have produced the greatest economy in the history of the United States, during his term from 2017 – 2021. He believes that he will do the same if elected in November, stating that “if I win, we will quickly build the greatest economy in the history of the world, which is what we had in our last term.”

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While Trump presided over a great comeback-year for the US after COVID, and had an average growth of 2.3 per cent, the GDP under President Joe Biden isn’t as bad as Trump leads his supporters to believe. Data sets show that Biden’s average GDP growth is about the same as Trump’s at 2.2 per cent. Both are far from the best the US has seen, which was around the 70’s and 80’s, at above 7 per cent.

Inflation comparison shows that under the current president, inflation grew by 19.2 per cent, as compared to Trump’s era inflation of 7.8 per cent. At the same time, the wage growth under Biden administration was 19.4 per cent as compared to Trump’s 15.4 per cent.

This can partially be explained by the overall employment numbers, which clocked in at 15 million new jobs under Biden as compared to 7 million new jobs under Trump. However, Covid-19 put a dent in Trump’s employment numbers by reducing 2.7 million jobs.

Put together, higher employment leading to higher inflation signals more towards overall economic growth rather than economic mismanagement in Joe Biden’s America.

HURRICANE RESPONSE

Trump criticised Biden and Harris for their hurricane response as well, stating it was “the worse response in North Carolina and other states since Katrina.” Following 2024’s Hurricane Helene, over $100 million was approved in assistance by the Biden administration for over 77,000 survivors in North Carolina. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved a total of over $911 million in assistance after Hurricane Helene, and an additional $620 million after Hurricane Milton that closely followed Helene.

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For comparison, after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, the US territory was left with $90 billion in damages. The Federal government under Trump allocated $40 billion dollars, a third of which was received by the territory by 2019. Despite approving $20 billion in housing and urban development funds, the relief package was stalled in 2019 amidst additional restrictions used to make accessing the funds more difficult for Puerto Rico. Weeks before the 2020 presidential election, Trump released an additional $13 billion in assistance for the territory.

Trump continued to accuse the government of withholding funds from devastated areas, stating that instead, they “spent their money on bringing in illegal migrants, so they didn’t have money for Georgia and North Carolina and Alabama and Tennessee and Florida and South Carolina.”

MIGRANT CRIME

Another focal point of Trump’s campaign has been a promise to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” in order to “rescue every city and town that’s been invaded and conquered” and put the “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail and kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible.”

To that end, Trump is threatening to invoke the Aliens Enemies Act, 1798. According to the act, the president is able to give the directive for all natives or citizens of a country the US is at war with to be “apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed,” as long as they are at least 14 years old and male. The same act was used during world war two to detain Japanese and Japanese Americans in America due to a supposed threat on national security. Over 31,000 people, including people of Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry, as well as Jewish refugees, had been held in internment camps by the end of World War II in the US.

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“I will also restore our borders. Its bigger than inflation, its bigger than the economy, what they’re doing to our country, they’re allowing criminals from all over the world into our country,” Trump said, despite a myriad of peer reviewed studies proving his claims are baseless.

Additionally, an article published on the Pew Research Centre, making use of date from both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) show declines in violent crime in the US in general, which is in direct contrast to claims made by Trump regarding rising crime rates within the country.

WAR

Trump also discussed war, stating the American people are “tired of fighting. I’m the only president in the last 84 years that didn’t start a war.”

Jimmy Carter, who presided over the US from 1977 to 1981, never declared war on another nation, but also left office with no soldier dying in hostile action. 65 US troops died under Trump in the fight against Islamic State’s militancy.

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