Madison Square Garden to Host First Fascist Rally Since 1939 Trump will hold a rally in the arena on Oct. 27
On Oct. 9, 2024, Donald Trump announced that he had added a rally to his campaign schedule for Oct. 27. “We just rented Madison Square Garden,” Trump told the crowd at campaign rally stop in Scranton, Penn. “We’re gonna make a play for New York, it hasn’t been done in a long time. It hasn’t been done in many decades.”
It has been eight and a half decades in fact. From NPR:
On the evening of Feb. 20, 1939, the marquee of New York’s Madison Square Garden was lit up with the evening’s main event: a “Pro American Rally.” The organizers had chosen the date in celebration of George Washington’s birthday and had procured a 30-foot-tall banner of America’s first president for the stage. More than 20,000 men and women streamed inside and took their seats. The view they had was stunning: Washington was hung between American flags — and swastikas.
The rally was sponsored by the German American Bund, an organization with headquarters in Manhattan and thousands of members across the United States. In the 1930s, the Bund was one of several organizations in the United States that were openly supportive of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe. They had parades, bookstores and summer camps for youth. Their vision for America was a cocktail of white supremacy, fascist ideology and American patriotism.