David Rem, former candidate for U.S. Congress, speaks before Donald Trump takes the stage at Madison Square Garden. Photo by Getty Images
Contributing Columnist
Jay Michaelson
October 28, 2024
Any Jewish person still thinking of voting for former President Donald Trump should take a long, hard look at Sunday’s rally in Madison Square Garden.
Listen to Tucker Carlson, Holocaust-denial sympathizer, who said that “It’s gonna be pretty hard to look at us and say, you know what, Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s so impressive — as the first Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.”
Harris, of course, is of Jamaican and Indian ancestry; Carlson was apparently improvising and perhaps joking. Though no non-racist could listen to Harris and Trump — their diction, reasoning, coherence — and truly believe she is less intelligent than he is.)
Then came the remarks of one David Rem, who claims that the former president’s father, Fred Trump, paid for his high school tuition after Rem’s father died in 1974. The story has not yet been verified; Rem is a well-known MAGA loudmouth in Queens, New York, though is less known as a convicted drug dealer. Not wanting Carlson to spew the most outrageous vitriol of the evening, Rem said that Harris “is the devil. She is the antichrist. She said that Jesus Christ’s followers are not welcome” at her rallies.
“President Trump,” he added, “knows that Jesus Christ is king.”
Rem then held a crucifix aloft to the wild cheers of the crowd. Here’s the video:
I’m saving the worst — or at least the most widely-publicized — for last: comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. By way of background, saying “outrageous” things, and then mocking anyone who complains about it for not getting the joke, is Hinchcliffe’s bit. For example, In May, 2021, Hinchcliffe got in hot water by following Asian comedian Peng Dang with a torrent of hilarious (just kidding) lines, such as “How about it one more time for the filthy little f–king Chink that was up here. While all you f–king race traitors are hooting and hollering, I’m back there watching you, puking in a f–king bucket.” He then imitated Dang in a stereotypical ‘Fu Manchu’ accent, “Oh, we make dah gunpowder, oh you want extra soy sauce, Oh you borrow money from us.”
Hinchcliffe later said he was kidding, and only satirizing an offended white person’s response to Dang’s set, which had largely been about Asian stereotypes. Here’s the entire video of both comedians, if you’re interested; it includes several interchanges with hecklers who called him out for being racist.
Sunday in MSG, Hinchcliffe offered the following hilarious (just kidding) insights:
I welcome migrants to the United States of America with open arms and with open arms I mean like this. [Waves hands in front of face and mouths ‘no no no, go back’] It’s wild. And these Latinos, they love making babies, just know that. They do. There’s no pulling out. They come inside, just like they did to our country…
I don’t know if you 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.
When it comes to Israel and Palestine, we’re all thinking the same thing: settle your stuff already. Best out of three, rock, paper, scissors. You know the Palestinians are gonna throw rock every time. You also know the Jews having a hard time throwing that paper, you know what I’m saying?
Puerto Rican superstars including Bad Bunny and Ricky Martin responded to this unprovoked vitrol by posting videos of Harris talking about Puerto Rico and contrasting her remarks not only with Hinchcliffe’s, but also with Donald Trump’s callous behavior in the wake of Hurricane Maria, when Trump held up billions of dollars in relief and then flew down to San Juan, where he threw rolls of paper towels to people at a press event. (Marc Anthony’s video on this is extremely powerful.)
In response to the furor at these remarks, Hinchcliffe stayed true to his usual script, saying “these people have no sense of humor.”
“I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone,” he said. “Watch the whole set. I’m a comedian.”
Nervous Republicans weren’t laughing. Florida Senator Rick Scott, whose once-secure reelection bid is now flailing, distanced himself from the remarks. Trump spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
But everything all these speakers said reflects the MAGA movement of which Trump is a part: the vulgarity, the extreme nationalism, the mockery of anyone who isn’t white, the tolerance of ‘just joking’ antisemitism like Hinchcliffe’s cheap shot. Indeed, it embodied the movement perfectly.
And let’s not gloss over Trump’s own comments at the rally, which in any year before 2016 would’ve been headline news, in which he said that Democrats are “smart and they’re vicious, and we have to defeat them,” and again referred to them as “the enemy from within.” Not to mention a weird aside to Rep. Matt Gaetz about “our little secret is having a big impact — he and I have a little secret, and we’ll tell you about it when the race is over.” And, of course, his endless torrent of lies
about immigrants (who, in fact, commit crimes at a lower rate than natural-born US citizens).
In recent weeks, there’s been some debate as to whether all this constitutes “fascism” or not. Some of Trump’s closest advisors, retired Gen. John Kelly and retired Gen. Mark Milley, have said that it does. Some of Harris’ campaign strategists say not to mention it.
But maybe that discussion is beside the point. In the run-up to the rally, many wondered if it would resemble the infamous “Pro American Rally” held by Nazi sympathizers in February, 1939. And in some ways, it did: it was filled with repulsive rhetoric and vicious incitement, from start to finish, and the audience was overwhelmingly white.
But in other ways, the rally was quite different. The America First attendees in 1939 sat, sang, and saluted politely, but the America First speakers and crowd in 2024 were vulgar, crude, and mean-spirited. The 1939 America First speakers railed against the “Jewish-controlled media” but the 2024 America First speakers (including Trump) left off the ‘Jewish’ part and only referenced vague, sinister forces who control our culture, media, finance and politics.
Maybe a more productive way to see this rally is as a taste of the world to come, to paraphrase a rabbinic term. Is this ultra-nationalist, often Christian Nationalist, world of rage, resentment, and scapegoating the America we want to live in? Are any other values — Israel, tax cuts, less regulation — really worth this devil’s bargain? Let’s not be in denial: the MAGA movement is serious about these things. It’s not just campaign rhetoric. Look closely at this rally. Is this the world you want to live in?
Rabbi Jay Michaelson is a contributing columnist for the Forward and for Rolling Stone. He is the author of 10 books, and won the 2023 New York Society for Professional Journalists award for opinion writing.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].
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