Opinion - How Donald Trump ruined his prom queen moment at Madison Square Garden
Donald Trump’s rally this weekend at Madison Square Garden was supposed to be a crowning moment for the former president. The setup was supposed to strike trepidation into the Democratic Party and the Kamala Harris campaign.
What an impressive feat it would be for a Republican to host an event in the middle of New York City in front of a capacity crowd. It would show the American voters that the MAGA movement was bigger than they realized and might sway some of them to vote for Trump next week. But instead of America seeing Trump in his proverbial tiara and sash, his prom queen moment was ruined by his own campaign.
Trump, ever the showman, can’t be happy that the viral clips spreading around the internet are not of his speech but instead focused on the opening act. Tony Hinchcliffe, a professional comedian, decided that a political rally was the best place to make crude jokes about Puerto Rico, Latinos, immigrants, Black Americans and others. The jokes landed flat even with the MAGA crowd and quickly became the focal point of the event.
For a campaign that is desperate to land Latino and Black votes, Hinchcliffe’s “comedy” was about as helpful as a bazooka blast to the foot. But that seems par for the course for a campaign that can’t seem to get out of its own way.
Look, Trump will say what he wants and for some reason doesn’t get held to the same standard as other politicians. Van Jones on CNN put it perfectly. “He gets to be lawless, and she [Kamala Harris] has to be flawless.” However, while Trump seems to have free rein, his campaign still needed to be disciplined. And MSG was just the latest blunder among many that his campaign could have and should have avoided.
Trump’s campaign has made several major missteps since July. They were caught by surprise by President Biden’s exit from the race. They did not have a good strategy to attack Harris. They picked a VP candidate who polled poorly. They bungled the campaign platform on abortion. They amplified untrue allegations about Haitian migrants. They got involved in a physical altercation at Arlington National Cemetery. They let far-right activist Laura Loomer into Trump’s circle.
You can add more if you wanted to, but the point would be the same. This is a campaign that has gone out of its way to commit self-sabotage. On the contrary, Kamala Harris’s campaign has run a tight ship. Her campaign has done everything to craft her image and stay on point with messaging. There has been no “Dean Scream,” no Michael Dukakis in a tank, no John Kerry flip-flops (that have stuck anyway), no Al Gore lockbox, no deplorables insults. And in a campaign that has been a race to the middle, Harris has shown the discipline to get as many independents as possible to her cause.
Trump’s campaign staff, on the other hand, may look at the results next week and wonder what if. They could have let Trump say his thing, but still run a disciplined campaign. Instead, their ineptitude led to the Madison Square Garden disaster. Claiming a speaker at this function “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign” runs very hollow when he is invited to speak at Trump’s biggest event since the convention and biggest event before the election.
Trump could have stood at the center of Madison Square Garden and talked about the economy, immigration, crime and abortion and made the case to Latinos, Black Americans, independents and undecideds that he would be the best choice. The optics would have been hard to beat. But thanks to his own campaign, his prom queen moment was ruined and even more so, his chances of winning critical votes a week before the election.
Jos Joseph is a master’s candidate at the Harvard Extension School at Harvard University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and lives in Anaheim, Calif.
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