Opinion: Trump's racist Madison Square Garden rally was everything America shouldn't be

At Donald Trump’s racist, hate-filled Madison Square Garden rally this weekend, the Republican Party got a look at rock bottom, and American voters got a glimpse of the babbling hell that awaits them if Trump wins reelection next week.

The event was ugly, with racist jokes about Puerto Ricans and Black people. It was weird, with appearances by wrestler Hulk Hogan, the now-nearly-destitute Rudy Giuliani and some hack radio host who said of the Democratic Party: “The whole f---ing party, a bunch of degenerates, lowlifes, Jew-haters.”

The rally was an insult to decency, an hours-long freak show fully endorsed by the GOP thanks to an appearance by House Speaker Mike Johnson. It sent shock waves across the country, drawing condemnation even from Republican lawmakers and earning the Trump campaign headlines like:

“Trump rally speakers lob racist insults, call Puerto Rico ‘island of garbage’”

“Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism”

"Trump MSG rally marked by racist tropes and vitriol"

Trump's Madison Square Garden rally was a festival of hate and conspiracy

Trump’s massive ego demanded a rally in New York City, even though New York is a reliabily blue state. What the former president got was a self-inflicted October surprise, one that will define him and the entire Republican Party from now until Election Day.

Sunday’s rally started with an alleged comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, saying: “I don’t know if you guys know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

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He followed up with additional racism: “And these Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that." He went on to spin that garbage into a graphic sexual joke.

Hinchcliffe also peddled some lowest-common-denominator racism, talking about Black people “carving watermelons” at Halloween.

Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk and Stephen Miller – yikes

Radio host Sid Rosenberg took the stage and called Democrats “degenerates” and “lowlifes.” Fund manager Grant Cardone called Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris “fake” and said “her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” Loathsome former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson mocked the fact that Harris is biracial – her mother was Indian and her father is Jamaican – calling her a “Samoan-Malaysian low-IQ former California prosecutor.” Vampiric Trump lackey Stephen Miller ominously decried immigrants, saying: “America is for Americans and Americans only.”

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At one point, the Madison Square Garden crowd started mocking Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, by chanting “Tampon Tim!”

Trump showed up to MSG and made things even worse

Once Trump took the stage, he continued the insanity, repeating his un-American claims that those who don’t support him are “the enemy from within” and saying: “For the past nine years we have been fighting against the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth.”

He called Harris “a low-IQ individual” and, fully unhinged, said the United States “is now an occupied country.”

He labeled the media “the enemy of the people” and, perhaps scariest of all, talked about having anti-vaccine nutter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. be part of his administration: “I'm gonna let him go wild on health. I'm gonna let him go wild on the food. I'm gonna let him go wild on medicines.”

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Trump's rally was a gift for Harris and Democrats

In total, it was more than five hours of anger, conspiracies, veiled and not-at-all veiled racism, and growling, low-brow nonsense. It was a look down the pit of shame the Republican Party has lowered itself into with its slavish devotion to Trump. It was, objectively, a political disaster, alienating huge swaths of voters, from the Puerto Rican community to the Black community to the “people who don’t think horrible people should get elected” community.

So now there’s a week left in which Republicans will be fully defined by this hateful buffoon, by this convicted felon they willingly joined for a lenthgy drag through the mud. The party showed America and the world, clear as day, that it’s a big tent shy of a circus.

The question now is whether voters will look at clips of Sunday’s rally, hear the justified outrage and feel repulsed.

Is that chaos and cruelty what they want for the next four years? Is that who we are? Should Trump’s invidious personality be the face of America?

If your answers to those questions are “no,” “no” and “hell no,” I have a suggestion: Keep the vile images of that rally in your mind, and vote so hard it leaves your arm sore.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: The ugliness Trump, GOP created was on full display in NYC