Why Is Trump Holding a Rally at Madison Square Garden?

Why Is Trump Holding a Rally at Madison Square Garden?

New York is not exactly a battleground state. Here are five reasons Donald J. Trump is holding a rally there in the final days of the presidential campaign.

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By Maggie Haberman

When former President Donald J. Trump decided to take a day off the battleground campaign trail in the waning days of the race to hold a rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden, it prompted a question from many political observers: Why?

New York is hardly a battleground state, and New York City is still a Democratic stronghold. So how come Mr. Trump is planning an event in Midtown Manhattan in the final two weeks of his presidential campaign?

Here are five reasons:

He will get to see his name in lights.

Mr. Trump was a performer and reality TV star before he was a political candidate and president. (It is worth recalling that at the Republican National Convention this summer in Milwaukee, Mr. Trump appeared onstage with a Broadway-style light display spelling out T-R-U-M-P.)

For years, Mr. Trump has measured the significance of his rally venues in part by who had appeared there before. And his yardsticks were usually not other politicians, but singers and other celebrities.

“Do you know how many arenas I’ve beaten Elton John’s record?” Mr. Trump once asked Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, as he prepared to hold an event during his presidency at the Fargodome at North Dakota State University.

And when he appeared at a rally last month at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, Mr. Trump noted proudly that Elvis Presley had played there.

Mr. Trump has wanted to hold a rally at the Garden for a very long time. It styles itself as “the World’s Most Famous Arena” and has presented some of his favorite artists, including Elton John, Frank Sinatra and the Village People, whose song “Y.M.C.A.” is a staple at his events. (As president, he took in an Ultimate Fighting Championship match there, entering the arena to a mix of boos and cheers, and in 2013, before he was a candidate, he was inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame there.)

Still, Mr. Trump’s team, led by his top advisers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, is facilitating his desire to return as the headliner, and they see upsides.

It will generate a blitz of coverage.

Where Mr. Trump goes, television cameras follow. And by coming to one of the media capitals of the United States, the Trump team is aware that he will acquire mountains of coverage in the campaign’s final stretch that will be broadcast and streamed to voters in the crucial battleground states and the rest of the country.

That was also true in California, where Mr. Trump held a rally in Coachella, a city that shares a name with a famous music festival that attracts stars.

That rally drew lots of attention. And the Trump campaign’s expectation is that his rally at the Garden will draw even more.

That type of focused media attention in the final days of a tightly fought contest, when both campaigns are battling to win the support of voters who may not follow politics or political news closely, is significant.

It’s a giant trolling exercise

Last spring, when Mr. Trump was on trial on criminal charges of falsifying business records to cover up a 2016 hush-money payment to a porn star who claimed to have had an affair with him, he held a rally in the Bronx. He also visited a bodega in Harlem.

Mr. Trump was determined to show up at various spots in New York, and at the time, his advisers were hoping to plan a summer rally at the Garden.

That scheduling did not work out. But Mr. Trump and his team liked the idea of planting a flag in the middle of a Democratic-leaning city. It is a defiant gesture in a city that overwhelmingly voted against him twice, where he was convicted of 34 felony counts in the business records case, ordered to pay several hundred million dollars in penalties in a civil fraud case and found liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

Mr. Trump will now get his opportunity.

It could help Republicans in down-ballot races.

With Republicans fighting to keep control of the House through a series of closely fought races, Mr. Trump’s presence could have an effect on turnout.

In New York in particular, several House races on Long Island and in Westchester and the Hudson Valley are seen as competitive this year, making the state one of the most important battlegrounds in the race for control of the House. Concerns about immigration, crime and rising living costs — issues Mr. Trump has made central to his campaign — have emerged as factors in several of the tightest contests.

Mr. Trump’s advisers believe his presence in areas with competitive House races can help Republicans, even in overwhelmingly Democratic states like New York and California. What’s more, if Mr. Trump is able to perform better in blue states, even if he loses them, it will help him drive up his popular vote.

It’s still his preferred city.

Mr. Trump may have rebuffed New York in 2019 to re-register as a voter in Florida — primarily for tax purposes, according to people close to him — but he has never stopped wanting to spend time at Trump Tower in his longtime hometown.

As it turns out, he has been able to spend a sizable amount of time there this year, in part because of his various trials. Now, he will spend part of the second to last weekend of his campaign there, as he continues to chase his dream of winning the state, which polls suggest is a long shot at best.