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TRIUMPH OF THE SWILL: A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN WITH TRUMP AND MAGA  
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Arun Gupta
November 1, 2024
CounterPunch
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_ Trump, Miller, and the rest of MAGA are telling us they plan to
occupy America. They are itching to use the military to terrify,
subjugate, and ethnically cleanse. The only liberation will be for
their violent desires and that of their Herrenvolk. _

, (Youtube screenshot)

 

Trumpism is capacious. It contains contradictions and absurdities. It
borrows from the left and the right. An explosive mix of love and hate
propels it. Anyone can afford the price of admission. They only need
to embrace Trump, MAGA, and conspiracies.

MAGA was in force on a crisp Sunday afternoon outside Madison Square
Garden in late October. I joined tens of thousands of faithful seeking
entry to the Woodstock of fascism. The lineup featured some of the
worst people in America: Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, Rudy Giuliani,
Tulsi Gabbard, RFK, Jr., JD Vance, Tucker Carlson, Elise Stefanik,
Trump’s progeny, C-list racists and cranks, and the
Demagogue-in-Chief himself.

Trump is the greatest conman in history. He is a cult leader. He has
sold his followers on America, or at least the idea that America was
once great, it’s being destroyed by traitors on the inside colluding
with enemies on the outside, and if his supporters make him dictator
he will solve all of America’s problems. Trump will fix the border,
end inflation and wokeism, bring world peace, return prosperity, stop
boys from becoming girls.

That isn’t enough to win the presidency, but the Democrats are
assisting him with inflation, endless wars, and decades of turning
right-wing atrocities into bipartisan policies. Trump is there with
simple, flashy answers and a sense of purpose for those hurting
economically, alienated socially, and enraged politically.

During the six-hour-long rally at MSG, speakers mentioned inflation
and the high cost of gas and groceries more than 40 times. War, World
War III, nuclear war, Democrats as the party of war, and Trump as
antiwar were mentioned more than 30 times.

If all you know of a Donald Trump rally is descriptions
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“Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny, and Racism,” you would not
understand why nearly 20,000 people would pack the Garden. It was a
hatefest. But that description
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is as one-sided as Trump calling the hours of bigotry a “lovefest
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It’s both. There were torrents of hate about Puerto Rico
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“transgender insanity,” racist slurs against Harris, references to
“her pimp handlers,” immigrants as “vicious … criminal …
savage,” and Democrats as “a bunch of degenerates, low-lifes,
Jew-haters.” An alleged
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friend of Trump called Harris “the Antichrist” and brandished a
crucifix. Bashing trans people and immigrants was unrelenting and met
with effusive cheers. But speakers also invoked love for America, God,
Trump, the audience, and New York City more than 90 times.

It doesn’t matter Trump is selling a giant lie. His followers
believe he will return America to greatness. Everyone I spoke to was
excited to be at the rally. It made them feel good. They felt they
were making history and were on the winning team.

They fervently believed America was once a great nation where hard
work was rewarded, real Americans were respected, and the good life
came to those who earned it. But now traitors and enemies were
destroying the country. They had unwavering faith one man could
vanquish the evildoers, fix every problem, and Make America Great
Again. But they have to elect God Emperor Trump to make it possible.

Trump is a classic populist authoritarian in which people invest their
hopes in an all-powerful, all-knowing leader who acts for the good. If
that sounds god-like, it’s deliberate. Trump overtly
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flock to consider him the “second coming of God
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The melding of love and hate points to how MAGA absorbs contradictions
seamlessly. After speakers vilified trans people, another said MAGA
included all sexual orientations. One speaker blasted Biden and Harris
for abandoning Afghan allies to the Taliban, then an anti-immigrant
video denounced the Democrats for letting in Afghan “terrorists.”
One businessman howled, “we must crush jihad,” but Trump boasted
of support from Muslim voters in Michigan, saying, “they’re
great.”

Outside the Garden, Kathy, an immigrant from the Philippines who lives
on Long Island, said she was concerned about “illegals” and wants
them deported. “Stop paying them,” she said. It was a nod to a
conspiracy theory that the federal government lavishes money on
undocumented immigrants, which is utterly false. Like everyone else
interviewed, Kathy was both an election denialist, claiming Trump won
in 2020, and mentioned high prices and inflation as a reason she
supported Trump. When asked what she likes about Trump, she said,
“He’s normal.”

Kathy was in the throes of staggering delusion. About a dozen other
people I talked to on Sunday had also gone off the deep end.

I asked an African-American man from Brooklyn why he was there. He
said twice, “Something’s afoot,” hinting at a sinister
conspiracy. He also mentioned the economy, saying, “We’re getting
raped in the pocketbook.”

Amma lived in the Bronx and is from Guyana. She was fired as a public
school teacher after refusing to get a Covid vaccine. Amma said
vaccine mandates tipped her over into supporting Trump. She complained
about sanctuary cities and the price of groceries. She gestured at the
sky and said airplanes were being used to engineer climate change.

Christine was also from Long Island. She said, “I am not a feminist.
I am not against women, but I don’t think Kamala can sit down with
Putin. He won’t stand for it. Same with that guy from Korea,”
referring to Kim Jong Un. Christine said she supported Trump because
“I don’t want my tax dollars to pay for kids cutting off their
genitals.” She added that illegal immigrants “are coming over here
and they can vote.”

One man in his twenties said immigrants in Ohio go into supermarkets
with $6,000 on EBT cards to buy groceries. He claimed immigrants with
little kids knock on people’s doors. When residents open their
doors, thinking the family is begging for food, a gang of immigrants
rush in, steal everything, and beat up the family. “It’s happening
a lot,” he said.

Hardcore Trump supporters are terrible. One might even say garbage.
Whatever pains a cruel America has inflicted on them does not justify
their choice to join a fascist cult.

They freely entered the sinister world of MAGA. It is post-factual,
post-logical, post-reality. Conspiracies serve an important function.
If you think the government controls the weather, the 2020 election
was stolen, illegals are being given princely sums and the right to
vote, or countless other falsehoods, then you will believe anything.

You would believe Giuliani when he said Trump would save America
from Commie Nazis [[link removed]], or
Trump’s vow to “build a beautiful dome over our country” —
ideas right out of “The Simpsons
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But there is more going on. Believing in illogical, baseless
conspiracies, makes it easier to absorb contradictory ideas such as
Trump is saving democracy but needs to be a dictator, or he is antiwar
even though he encouraged Israel
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bomb Iran’s nuclear sites, which would risk a conflagration with
Russia
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MAGA world is about a feeling. Through Trump his masses feel powerful.
Speeches gave the audience pride about themselves, their nation, and
most of all Trump. Has-beens like Hulk Hogan and Giuliani, and
the unfunniest comedian ever
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attendees feel like MAGA stars. Compare that to Kamala Harris. She
enlists mega-stars like Oprah, Taylor, Bruce, JLo, Beyonce, and Bad
Bunny in hopes their popularity will rub off on her.

At MSG, some of the biggest cheers were for Elon Musk, Dana White, CEO
of the UFC, and tech bro Vivek Ramaswamy. They attract young men to
Trump’s cult of hypermasculinity that has created an
unprecedented gender gap 
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Gen Z voters with 59 percent of young women supporting Harris but only
42 percent of young men. The audience was at least a quarter brown and
Black, there were lots of women, but it skewed male. It was codgers
and conspiracists, construction workers and incels.

Speakers lavished praise on Trump. They said he would save America,
lauded his kindness, his generosity, and denied he was a bully. Tucker
Carlson claimed years of reporting that Trump rages in private at his
enemies was a lie. “He’s talking about the people and the country
he loves in his private time. Trust me,” said Carlson.

Ramaswamy, who ran as a more extreme, conspiratorial and deceitful
version of Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, said,
“Donald Trump is actually the president who will unite this country.
America First includes all Americans regardless of their race or
gender or sexual orientation.”

Tulsi Gabbard, the Bernie Bro turned MAGA rock star
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said, “It is love that brings us together here today. That love for
freedom. That love for our country and love for each other as fellow
Americans as children of God that compels us to take action to save
our country and defend our freedom.”

Dr. Phil, the celebrity TV doctor labeled
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“charlatan” and a “quack,” said, “I love this country. I do.
I love this country. I stand up when our flag goes by. I put my hand
over my heart when they play our national anthem, and I’m so proud
to see so many people take time out of their day to come out here and
stand up for this country. … [Donald Trump] loves this country
too.”

Love and hate are intimately linked. Ramaswamy said:

“We are lost. We are hungry to be part of something bigger than
ourselves, yet we can’t even answer what it means to be an American
today. We’re in the middle of a national identity crisis. Faith in
God, patriotism, hard work, family. These things have disappeared,
only to be replaced by woke-ism and transgenderism, climatism,
COVID-ism, depression, anxiety, fentanyl, suicide. These are symptoms
of a deeper void of purpose and meaning in our country, and right now,
we need to step up and fill that void with our own vision.”

Byron Donalds, a MAGA Congressman from a Florida district infested
with wealthy white retirees, linked American greatness to bashing
trans people. “We’re going to get men out of women’s sports
under Donald Trump. America will take its place again as the Shining
City on the Hill, as the leader of the world, as the number one
nation, as the great experiment, because he’s going to fix it once
again.”

Trump is the master of this approach. When he took the red-carpeted
stage nearly five hours into the event, he praised
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“I’m thrilled to be back in the city I love and thousands of proud
hard-working American patriots. You’re with me. We’re all
together. We’ve always been together.” Trump was optimistic. “I
am here today with a message of hope for all Americans.” Then Trump
began his strongman pitch emblazoned on his lectern and held aloft in
thousands of signs that read, “Trump will fix it.”

Trump promised munificence. He would end taxes on tips, on overtime,
on Social Security benefits, bestow a tax credit for family
caregivers, slash energy prices in half in a year, and make interests
on car loans tax deductible, “but only for cars made in America.”

Trump promised wrath. Election day would be “liberation day.”
Towns and cities that had been “invaded and conquered” would be
scoured of “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals” and “savage
gangs” in the “largest deportation program” in U.S. history. To
roars of “USA, USA,” Trump called for “the death penalty for any
migrant that kills an American citizen.” He vowed to ban sanctuary
cities. Trump spewed lies that Democrats had abandoned Southern states
lashed by deadly hurricanes because, “They spent all of their money
on bringing in illegal immigrants and flying them in by beautiful jet
planes.” He claimed, “325,000 children are missing, dead, sex
slaves, or slaves. They came through the open border and they’re
gone.”

It’s the same script Trump read from in 2016, if a little more
malevolent. For a decade, Trump has successfully racialized class
grievances. Workers know they are being screwed over by the rich and
powerful, but they lack the words and ideas to understand it. That
makes many easy marks for a billionaire demagogue who says, “Blame
the immigrants next to you for making your life worse,” and not his
plutocratic buddies. In 2024, there are new twists that display
Trump’s ability to steal ideas from any source and attack from both
the left and right at once.

Kamala Harris’s biggest mistake is allying with Dick Cheney, who
has 4.5 million deaths
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his hands as the architect of the post-9/11 order, and his warmonger
progeny Liz Cheney, who voted with Trump 93 percent
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the time.

Speakers delighted in trashing the Democrats’ new BFFs. Tulsi
Gabbard said, “A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for Dick Cheney
and it’s a vote for more war, likely World War III and nuclear war.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a man who wants to end wars, not
start them.”

Tucker Carlson said, while giggling, “Liz Cheney’s out there with
Kamala Harris and here’s Bobby Kennedy calling to protect women’s
sports at a Trump rally. It’s a realignment. It’s unbelievable.”

RFK, Jr., said of Dick Cheney and John Bolton endorsing Harris,
“These are the people that gave us a war in Iraq, the worst foreign
policy catastrophe that’s ever happened to this country. These are
the people that gave us the Patriot Act that launched the surveillance
state. These are the people that are trying to undermine voting rights
in this country by weaponizing the federal agencies against political
candidates, including me and Donald Trump.”

In other words, Trump is the antiwar, anti-surveillance, pro-voting
rights candidate. It’s another lie, and it also doesn’t matter.
Democrats gave Trump an opening to make these words sound true to
millions of people.

Even more brazen, a viciously anti-immigrant video shown during
Trump’s speech ended with the words, “End the Occupation. Liberate
America.”

Trump’s campaign is now stealing from the Palestinian liberation
struggle. The move stinks of Stephen Miller, who delivered
a blood-and-soil tirade
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out of 1938, thundering, “America is for Americans and Americans
only.”

In 2017, Miller helped pen Trump’s “American Carnage
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inaugural speech. Listening to it in D.C. not far from the White
House, I said, “That’s not a description. Carnage is the plan.”
And there began the shambolic shitshow for four years ending in a
million preventable Covid-19 deaths.

Eight years wiser and with four years to plan, Trump, Miller, and the
rest of MAGA are telling us they plan to occupy America. They are
itching to use the military to terrify, subjugate, and ethnically
cleanse. The only liberation will be for their violent desires and
that of their Herrenvolk who went wild at mentions of mass
deportations. They loved the idea. 

 

_Arun Gupta is an investigative reporter who has written for The
Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The Intercept, The Nation, The
Guardian, YES Magazine, and other publications. He is a graduate of
the French Culinary Institute in New York and author of the
forthcoming “Apocalypse Chow: A Junk-Food-Loving Chef’s Inquiry
into Taste” (The New Press). Subscribe on substack
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reports, essays, and criticism._

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