Tens of thousands of supporters attended rally at ‘The World’s Most Famous Arena’ in Manhattan.
NEW YORK—Former President Donald Trump delivered a campaign speech at New York City’s Madison Square Garden for the first time in his political career on Sunday.
Speaking before tens of thousands of supporters, Trump covered a range of topics, promising to end inflation, secure the southern border, and end the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East, among other issues.
While most of the speech traversed themes Trump has invoked dozens of times, several highlights stood out.
Tax Credit for Family Caregivers
Trump proposed a tax credit for family members who take care of their loved ones at home.
“I’m announcing a new policy today that I will support a tax credit for family caregivers who take care of a parent or a loved one. It’s about time that they were recognized, right? They add so much to our country and are never spoken of, ever, ever, ever, but they’re going to be spoken of now,” Trump said.
The former president did not describe specifics of the proposal. The GOP party platform released this summer includes a paragraph which appears to describe a similar policy.
“Republicans will shift resources back to at-home Senior Care, overturn disincentives that lead to Care Worker shortages, and support unpaid Family Caregivers through Tax Credits and reduced red tape,” the platform states.
Harris earlier this month proposed expanding Medicare to cover home care services for seniors.
The ‘Little Secret’
In an aside comment which Trump appeared to make to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Trump referred to a “little secret” which will help Republicans win continued control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“You know, with me, we got to get the Congressman elected, and we got to get the senators elected, because we can take the Senate pretty easily,” Trump said.
“And I think with our little secret, we’re going to do really well with the house, right? Our little secret is having a big impact. He and I have a secret. We’ll tell you what it is when the race is over.”
Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority in the House. According to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, the GOP holds a slight 52-48 edge heading into the election. More than two dozen House races are rated as tossups, or too close to call, by the Cook Political Report.
The Call From Google’s CEO
Trump repeated a story he recently told about getting a call from the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. He said Pichai told him that the traffic generated by the stories about a campaign event at a McDonald’s restaurant.
“I got a call from Sundar, very smart guy at Google,” Trump said. “He called and he said, we’ve had more hits on McDonald’s and … I think he said anything we’ve ever had, but let’s say it’s close.”
Google did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump had previously related the same story during his interview with Joe Rogan.
The former president’s visit to a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania included a brief shift at the french fry station and several customer interactions at the drive-thru window. The visit was in part a response to Harris, who has said she has worked in a McDonald’s.
Trump earlier this month said that he called the head of Google to complain about the search engine’s treatment of stories about his campaign.
“They’re very bad to me, very, very bad to me,” Trump said on Oct. 15 at an interview forum at the Economic Club of Chicago. “They only have bad stories. In other words, if I have 20 good stories and 20 bad stories, and everyone’s entitled to that, you’ll only see the 20 bad stories.”
“And I called the head of Google the other day and I said, ‘I’m getting a lot of good stories lately, but you don’t find them in Google.’ I think it’s a whole rigged deal.”
Praise for Musk
The former president spent roughly five minutes praising SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has campaigned for Trump in Pennsylvania.
Trump said he was on the phone with the billionaire when he saw, for the first time, the successful return landing of the giant Starship booster. The 233-foot-tall Super Heavy booster fell from an altitude of 40 miles while decelerating with precision before it was caught by retractable arms atop a tower at the landing site.
“And I call him, I said, Elon, was that you? This is like, about four minutes after, was that you? Yeah, that was me. I say, ‘Elon, you’re a genius. You are a genius.’
“I said, Elon, let me ask you a question, can Russia do that? ‘No.’ Can China do that? ‘No.’ Can anybody do that, other than you? ‘Nobody else can do it,’” Trump continued. “And he said, ‘and they won’t be able to for 10 years.’”
Musk has donated tens of millions to a political action committee supporting Trump. Before Trump took the stage at Madison Square Garden, the tech mogul briefly spoke and introduced Melania Trump, the former president’s wife.
Eric Adams
Trump suggested that New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted as punishment for speaking out against the Biden administration’s border policies.
“When he said that this whole thing with the migrants coming into New York, this is just not sustainable. … It’s not feasible. It’s not not good. He said it very nicely. I said, well, he’s going to be indicted by these lunatics. A year later, he got indicted,” Trump said.
The former president previously made the same claim in passing during his speech at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.
Adams said last year that the migrant crisis would “destroy” New York City and that he didn’t see an end to the problem.
Ahead of Trump’s rally, Adams rebuffed recent attacks against former President Donald Trump and said Trump’s Madison Square Garden event should go ahead.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.