While speakers stumping for Donald Trump were pumping up his supporters inside Madison Square Garden Sunday night — including several who make crude and disparaging speeches about Blacks, Jews, and Puerto Ricans — Trump fans and those opposed to his policies outside the Midtown arena spoke their minds while remaining civil.
“I love everything about Trump,” gushed Romina Zunino, 27, who became a U.S. citizen this year and was one of those who couldn’t get into the packed MSG.
“I want our economy to be back up like it was. I want to have money again. I want these immigrants out of here, because I’m tired of seeing them get everything for free, and the citizens don’t get anything. And while we’re here struggling, they’re living their good life. And I’m tired of that.”
It will be the first election in which Zunino is eligible to vote — she emigrated to the U.S. from Ecuador and said she’s not offended by podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during his speech at the event.
“These Latinos, they love making babies too. There’s no pulling out, they don’t do that, they come inside, just like they did to our country,” Hinchcliffe said in his speech.
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gather for his campaign rally outside Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Zunino said she wasn’t offended, asserting, “I’m sure they’re not speaking about, like, every single Latino community. We’ve done everything legally.
“There’s more things to worry about than just a simple comment, to be honest, because I would rather be in a comfortable world, where I can afford things, where I can travel, where I can give my kids a better place to live than just a comment towards us, because everybody has comments towards every race, whether they like it or not,” she said.
Across the street from MSG on Eighth Ave., a group of about 100 anti-Trump protesters gathered, many holding signs and chanting phrases comparing Trump to Adolph Hitler and calling the former president and his followers Nazis and fascists: ”Welcome to your Nazi rally,” “Tired Loser,” and “F–k fascists.”
Other protesters were more diplomatic.
“I thought this is an opportunity to show interact with people who are Trump, curious or support Trump and … present them with alternative ideas, let them know that everybody on the other side is just as patriotic and loves the country just as much as they do,” said Murad Nayal, 58, of Westchester, who held a banner reading “Choose Country.”
“And we just think that Kamala Harris presents the better way forward,” he added.
Ed Wadi, 23, a used car salesman from New Jersey, said he won’t be voting because he is not registered, but that he’s generally supportive of Trump.
“I like his policies, Wadi said. “I feel like he’s more in line with me and what I like,” he added. “The opposition, I guess, Kamala [Harris], I feel like I don’t support the things that she does and things that she says. I don’t really trust it personally. She used to put people in jail for smoking cannabis. Now she’s against it. I feel like she does that a lot, where she flip flops on her policies.”
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump enter a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Two 17-year-olds from New Jersey — one a Harris supporter and the other a Trump supporter — came together to try to go to the rally, but arrived too late to gain entry to the full-house event. The Harris supporter said he came to learn. Neither are eligible to vote, they said.
Greg Keeler, 17, who lives in central New Jersey, was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and waving a flag. “Just here to support Trump. Love Trump,” he said.
He explained the friend he came with, Evan Yao, also 17, from Berkeley Heights, N.J., is “pro-choice” while Keller is “pro life” and doesn’t like “some of the messaging that Trump’s done.”
Yao, who wore a “Harris Walz 2024” hat, said he came along with Keeler for the experience.
“Ultimately, I think that our friendship is an example of how we can look past those things, but also like, sort of like, have some like, sympathy or empathy for the other side,” he said.