Trump’s upcoming Madison Square Garden MAGA rally sparks comparisons to 1939 Nazi event

09 October 2024

Twenty years ago, Republicans gathered at midtown Manhattan’s iconic Madison Square Garden for their national convention. But in 1939, the precursor to the renowned New York City venue hosted a different, and infamous event. With a name similar to Donald Trump’s “America First” MAGA rallies, it was called the “Pro-American Rally”—yet the party behind it was anything but.

The German American Federation, or German American Bund, was essentially the American Nazi Party. Its leader, Fritz Julius Kuhn, reportedly “was to become seen simply as an incompetent swindler and liar who spoke poor English.” He would later be exposed as a foreign agent, and, according to the FBI, “denaturalized in 1943 due to his pro-Nazi allegiances and deported to Germany in 1945.”

Slated for October 27, just nine days before Election Day, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign rally at Madison Square Garden “will kickoff an ‘arena tour’ for the former president who plans to visit battleground states in the final push before the Nov. 5 election,” NBC News reports.

Back in April, Trump “teased” out the event.

“We’re going to be doing a rally at Madison Square Garden, we believe,” the ex-president said. “We think we’re signing Madison Square Garden to do. We’re going to have a big rally honoring the police, and honoring the firemen, and everybody. Honoring a lot of people, including teachers by the way.”

In 2019, NPR reported on the February 20, 1939 Nazi rally.

“The organizers had chosen the date in celebration of George Washington’s birthday and had procured a 30-foot-tall banner of America’s first president for the stage. More than 20,000 men and women streamed inside and took their seats. The view they had was stunning: Washington was hung between American flags — and swastikas.”

“In the 1930s, the Bund was one of several organizations in the United States that were openly supportive of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe. They had parades, bookstores and summer camps for youth. Their vision for America was a cocktail of white supremacy, fascist ideology and American patriotism.”

“Attendees wore Nazi armbands, waved American flags and held aloft posters with slogans like “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian America,'” NPR reported, describing the mood inside the rally as “jubilant.”

“The speeches were explicitly anti-Semitic, and tirades against ‘job-taking Jewish refugees’ were met with thunderous applause.”

Award-winning journalist and co-founder of Spy magazine, Kurt Andersen, noted: “History doesn’t repeat but it rhymes.” Award-winning historian Michael Beschloss posted a photo from that 1939 rally.

“Historian here,” remarked Professor Manisha Sinha, President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, “not the first time that Madison Square Garden has hosted a Nazi rally. Businessmen trying to overthrow a democratically elected government? History doesn’t repeat but it sure rhymes!” she also said.

“Let’s be clear,” warns Democratic New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, whose district includes Madison Square Garden. “Allowing Trump to hold an event at MSG is equivalent to the infamous Nazis rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939.”

He’s calling on the owners of The Garden to cancel the event.

“This is a disastrous decision by Madison Square Garden that will endanger the public safety of New Yorkers and has the potential to incite widespread violence. For the good of NYC and its residents, I demand @TheGarden keep our city safe by cancelling the Trump rally.”

The company that owns Madison Square Garden is owned by billionaire Trump donorCharles Dolan, who founded HBO.

Outrage online in response to the news of Trump’s planned Madison Square Garden rally has been palpable.

In 2020, PBS aired,” A Night at the Garden,” about the 1939 American Nazi rally.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Watch the video and see the social media posts above or at this link.

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