Trump’s MSG event draws comparisons to 1939 Nazi rally

The DNC projects a message reading “Trump Praised Hitler” onto Madison Square Garden during his campaign rally on October 27, 2024, in New York City. Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for DNC

Hillary Clinton and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are among those comparing Sunday’s rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden to an infamous 1939 pro-Nazi gathering in the same venue — drawing outrage from Trump supporters.

Trump critics were quick to note that some of the rhetoric at Trump’s event chimed with speakers at the 1939 rally — for example, Trump aide Stephen Miller’s remark that “America is for Americans and Americans only.”

• Other speakers made crude remarks and “jokes” about Latinos, Black Americans, and immigrants.
• Trump himself used Nazi-inspired language like “occupied country” and “enemy from within.”

Yes, but: There are clear differences between the purposes and content of the two rallies, and Trump allies have accused Walz, Clinton and the media of tarring all Trump supporters as Nazis.

Hillary Clinton and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are among those comparing Sunday’s rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden to an infamous 1939 pro-Nazi gathering in the same venue — drawing outrage from Trump supporters.

The big picture: Trump critics were quick to note that some of the rhetoric at Trump’s event chimed with speakers at the 1939 rally — for example, Trump aide Stephen Miller’s remark that “America is for Americans and Americans only.”

• Other speakers made crude remarks and “jokes” about Latinos, Black Americans, and immigrants.
• Trump himself used Nazi-inspired language like “occupied country” and “enemy from within.”

Yes, but: There are clear differences between the purposes and content of the two rallies, and Trump allies have accused Walz, Clinton and the media of tarring all Trump supporters as Nazis.

• Miller accused one commentator of “spitting on the graves of my Jewish ancestors” by comparing the events.
• Sen. Marco Rubio accused the media of showing footage from the 1939 rally “TO SMEAR TRUMP SUPPORTERS AS NAZIS!”
• “Kamala Harris’ campaign is copying Hillary Clinton’s strategy of attacking half the country,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claimed.

How one sees these similarities and differences between these two events, 85 years apart, depends on their personal politics and views of history.

Flashback: How the 1939 rally happened

The 1939 rally was organized by the pro-Nazi German American Bund, led by Fritz Julius Kuhn.

“You have all heard of me through the Jewish-controlled press,” Kuhn told his MSG audience before saying his group was demanding a “white, gentile-ruled United States.”

• Ostensibly held to celebrate George Washington’s birthday, the rally was part of an effort to build U.S. support for Germany, which was at the time building concentration camps and preparing for large-scale invasions.
• Kuhn was not seeking office, but his German American Bund had set up secret camps around the U.S. to train young children in Nazism and antisemitic ideologies.
• More than 20,000 people attended the event, which also generated large protests outside MSG. At one point a Jewish man, Isidore Greenbaum, charged the stage but was apprehended before he reached Kuhn.
• Echos of 1939 at Trump rally
• Speakers at both rallies raised alarm about immigration, Marxism and shady enemies within the U.S.
• Both events were immediately controversial, drawing protests outside the arena and condemnation from some in the press, along with sympathetic coverage from others in the media on ideological or free speech grounds.
• The remark that drew the most immediate backlash on Sunday was Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke that Puerto Rico was “a floating island of garbage.” Hinchcliffe also said Latinos made a lot of babies.
• Trump’s rally featured speakers who had previously made racist and antisemitic remarks.Those include Trump himself, who has referred to immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the nation, echoing Adolf Hitler.
• The intrigue: Speakers at the Trump rally demanded a return to an earlier era of the U.S., but did not explicitly note that it had largely been controlled by white Americans.

How the rallies are different

The 1939 rally was an overtly racist and antisemitic event held in solidarity with another country, rather than in support of a U.S. presidential candidate.

• The Trump rally had no symbols of Nazism or Fascism, and organizers portrayed it as a mainstream political rally with celebrities, comedians, media personalities and the candidate.
• Trump and his supporters deny that he is a fascist. Kuhn literally wore his fascism on his sleeve.
• Organizers said comments like Hinchcliffe’s about Puerto Rico had been just jokes that didn’t reflect the views of the campaign.
• The Bund event was deadly serious, featuring few jokes and no comedians.
• Axios