Media erupts over Trump MSG rally, but history of arena and firsthand accounts belie narrative

Much of the media unloaded on former President Trump's historic Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, claiming it mirrored a Nazi rally at the famous venue in the 1930s despite an abundance of Jewish attendees and Israeli flags.

Thousands of Trump supporters packed the "World’s Most Famous Arena" to hear remarks by high-profile speakers, including an address from former first lady Melania Trump, before the former president took the stage. But instead of observing a Republican nominee drawing a massive crowd in the middle of a blue city only nine days before the election, liberal pundits followed Vice President Kamala Harris’ playbook of labeling Trump a fascist and comparing him to Adolf Hitler. 

An MSNBC guest said Trump’s team was cultivating "overt Nazi parallels," "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski called it a "weird, White nationalists Nazi-type rally," ABC’s Jonathan Karl called it "an incredibly dark event" and the New York Times called the rally a "carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism." The Washington Post's Philip Bump wrote a column arguing the rally mirrored the 1939 pro-Hitler rally at the Garden.

But people who attended have suggested Nazi rallies don’t typically have Jewish, Black and Hindu speakers or pro-Israel messaging. 

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"I was covering that rally and there was zero hate in the building. It was… For lack of a better word… Joyful," Fox News contributor Joe Concha posted on X. 

Attendee Debra Lea went viral after the rally when she posted a video defending it on social media.

"I’m a Jewish, New York Republican and I have seen the mainstream media calling this a ‘Nazi rally,’ and that couldn’t be further from the truth. There were so many Jews there, just like myself. There were Israeli flags and nearly every, single speaker talked about their commitment to upholding the relationship between U.S. and Israel," Lea said. 

"Not to mention all the Latino for Trump, Gays for Trump and nearly every other group that would have never been allowed in if this were actually a nazi rally," she continued. "Kamala Harris could literally bring Adolf Hitler on her stage and the mainstream media still wouldn’t call it a Nazi rally… their lies are futile." 

Among the Jewish people in attendance was Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski, an Auschwitz survivor who called Trump being compared to Hitler the "worst thing" he's heard in 75 years living in the United States. 

MSNBC put a spotlight on the venue being where a pro-Nazi rally occurred in 1939, even though MSG has been rebuilt several times and the current addition wasn’t even completed until 1969. Facts didn’t stop the liberal network from declaring Trump’s event was "particularly chilling" because it was held in the same arena that once hosted supporters of "a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler."

MSNBC even juxtaposed footage of the 1939 Nazi rally with Trump’s 2024 event. 

Retired NYPD Inspector Paul Mauro called it "ridiculous" to equate Trump's rally with what went on at MSG in 1939.

"Does the fact that you played the arena somehow make you Nazi adjacent? And let me tell you, for a Nazi rally there were an awful lot of Israeli flags in that building," Mauro said Monday on "America's Newsroom."

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MSG is the longtime home of the NBA's New York Knicks and NHL's New York Rangers, two of the most storied franchises in their respective sports. 

The Garden has hosted four Democratic National Conventions, was the site of Marilyn Monroe’s historic birthday performance to President John F. Kennedy in 1962, and hosted high-profile visits from Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Francis in 2015. It has also hosted U.S.O. events with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, 1971’s "Fight of the Century" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and numerous charity events.

Music legend Billy Joel had a years-long residency at MSG, it was the site of the inaugural WrestleMania in 1985 and was the longtime New York home to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. 

Michael Jackson, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Phish, Jay Z, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Madonna, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, The Who, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, The Grateful Dead, The Who, Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan have all played there, too. 

"These amateur historians discount every concert and Knicks game and Democrat convention so they can just smear Trump and the Republicans with a Nazi brush," NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News Digital. "They imagine that revering America's founding and talk of putting America first is racist, supporting mass deportation is racist, and being tough on crime is racist. Almost everything conservatives favor is considered fair game for accusations of racism."

"These same people have a cow when Trump calls Kamala Harris a ‘Marxist’ or a ‘communist,’" Graham continued. "The ‘independent fact-checkers’ stick up for Democrats, but have zero problem with dropping the F-word [fascist] on the Republicans."

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Stop Antisemitism founder and executive director Liora Rez also blasted the Hitler comparisons.

"Equating either presidential nominee—or their supporters—to the Nazi regime is a dangerous trivialization of the real horrors committed by Hitler. It dishonors the millions who were murdered and the brave who fought to end his tyranny," Rez told Fox News Digital. 

"Save the condemnation for actual Nazis," Rez continued. "Associating a modern-day rally at Madison Square Garden with a Nazi event from nearly a century ago is a reckless distortion of history."

Conservative columnist Dustin Grage mocked the suggestion by sharing images of historic MSG events. 

Other notable speakers at Trump's rally included House Speaker Mike Johnson, pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, tech billionaire Elon Musk, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's running mate Sen. JD Vance and TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw. 

Trump's speech included a focus on the economy and spiraling inflation and "bringing back the American dream," including vowing to the audience that he will cut their energy costs in half by January 2026 if he's re-elected. He also pledged that if he wins the election next week, he will lower costs for consumers as well as end taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits. 

Trump added that under his leadership, the Republican Party has become the "party of inclusion."

"Jews and Muslims and Catholics and Evangelicals and Mormons, and they're all joining our cause in large numbers, larger than anyone has ever seen in this country before, larger than they've ever seen in any country," he said.

New York City Council Minority Whip Inna Vernikov attended the rally and said it was "so contrary to whatever garbage MSNBC is trying to sell you."

"Our families were slaughtered like sheep during the Holocaust. The rally I went to was NO NAZI RALLY. It was an event filled to the brim with love for all Americans," Vernikov wrote. 

"The spirit of unity in the room was so palpable, and people of all races, religions, and walks of life came together in happy anticipation of a better future. Black or Hispanic, Jew, Muslim or Christian, it didn’t matter," Vernikov continued. "We all had a place there because we all have a common purpose: we all want to make this country a better place to live in, and bring back prosperity and American pride."

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, whose relatives perished during the Holocaust, said he does not need to be told what the Nazis are really about on "The Ingraham Angle" Monday.

"Most of my family perished in the Holocaust. I have very few relatives left. That's who the Nazis are," Fleischer, a first generation American whose mother fled the Nazis in 1939, said. "I don't need the Democrats to remind me of that by making these things up, by making our American politics, that the people who might beat them, the people they don't like because of domestic political issues, are fascists, are Nazis." 

He said Democrats making Nazi comparisons their closing argument in the election is the "dumbest" thing they could do politically. 

"Morally, it's reprehensible for anybody to invoke Adolf Hitler in American political life against somebody like Donald Trump, who is the essence of democracy. He won a contested primary. He may win a contested presidential election. This is a despicable thing that the Democrats are doing. And I'm here to personally tell you I reject it. It's historically wrong. It's morally wrong. It's factually wrong. It's wrong in every sense of the word," he added.