Trump wants to fill Madison Square Garden, Harris combs Philadelphia

With nine days to go until the US presidential election remains uncertain, Donald Trump hopes to fill the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York with red caps on Sunday, while Kamala Harris plans to sweep the field in Philadelphia, in the crucial state of Pennsylvania.

While the Democratic candidate has shown the support of several icons of popular culture in recent days, such as Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé, Donald Trump is hoping for a show of force with his supporters in “the most famous arena in the world”, where the Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2 have performed and where the popular NBA and ice hockey teams the Knicks and Rangers play.

For her part, Kamala Harris plans to call for votes “neighborhood by neighborhood” according to her campaign team, with an emphasis on black and Latino communities, to gain votes in one of the seven contested states that will swing the election on November 5, one of the closest in American history according to the polls.

In New York, a Democratic stronghold where he was born and made his fortune in real estate — several skyscrapers bear his name — before being convicted several times by civil and criminal courts, Donald Trump intends to present himself as the “best choice to repair everything that Kamala Harris has broken,” according to his campaign team.

A way of referring once again to the vice-president of the United States, whom he has not stopped, amidst personal insults (“drug addict”, “idiot”) attacking on inflation, immigration and insecurity, to the record of the Biden administration.

– “Fear” –

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On stage, where he is expected at 9pm GMT, after his omnipresent campaign ally, Tesla and X owner Elon Musk, or mixed martial arts (MMA) bigwig Dana White, Donald Trump will perhaps also respond to those who draw a parallel between his increasingly authoritarian, populist and nationalist speeches and the choice of Madison Square Garden, the scene of an impressive Nazi rally in 1939.

Former US First Lady Michelle Obama on stage for a campaign rally for Kamala Harris in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on October 26, 2024 © AFP – JEFF KOWALSKY

The 78-year-old Republican, who would be the oldest president in US history to take office if elected, has vowed not to be a dictator “except on day one” to close US borders. He also promises to expel millions of migrants from the United States, whom he accuses of “poisoning the blood of the country.”

On Saturday, during a rally in Pennsylvania, after a stop in another crucial state, Michigan, he again accused “Kamala (Harris) of organizing an invasion of criminal migrants from prisons and psychiatric hospitals around the world, from Venezuela to the Congo.” He also accused journalists of being “enemies of the people.”

Kamala Harris was supported by Michelle Obama, one of America's favorite personalities. The former first lady of the United States expressed her “real fear” of seeing Donald Trump, who never acknowledged his defeat in 2020 and was indicted by the federal justice system on the accusation of having tried to reverse the results of the election, return to the White House.

“All my hopes for Kamala are also accompanied by a real fear, fear for our country, fear for our children, fear of what awaits us if we forget the stakes of this election,” she said.

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