Fact-check: Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York City

Former President Donald Trump hammered location an anti-immigration taxable successful his closing statement transportation to voters connected October 27 astatine New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

But earlier Trump spoke, the lawsuit made headlines for a bid of racist jokes by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. He called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage” and disparaged Black Americans, Latinos and Jewish people. Democrats and astatine slightest 2 Florida Republicans, including Senator Rick Scott, swiftly condemned Hinchcliffe’s remarks astir Puerto Rico.

“This gag does not bespeak the views of President Trump oregon the campaign,” Danielle Alvarez, a elder advisor to the Trump run said successful a connection aft the rally addressing the comedian’s remark astir Puerto Rico.

At the rally, Trump, the Republican statesmanlike nominee, said helium presided implicit the astir unafraid borderline successful United States past (he did not), that the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not present hurricane alleviation due to the fact that the authorities spent its wealth bringing immigrants into the state illegally (it did not) and that overseas nations were emptying their prisons and sending convicts to the US (they are not).

A gaggle of speakers preceded Trump, including Trump’s moving mate, Senator JD Vance, Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr, Trump’s wife, Melania, his daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-Chair Lara Trump, US House Speaker Mike Johnson, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, nonrecreational wrestler Hulk Hogan, entrepreneur Elon Musk and erstwhile Fox News big Tucker Carlson.

Carlson riffed astir Harris’s imaginable triumph marking “the archetypal Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ erstwhile California authoritative ever to beryllium elected president”. Harris identifies arsenic a Black pistillate of multicultural descent; her parent was calved successful India and her begetter was calved successful Jamaica.

Trump nevertheless said the Republican Party helium leads “has truly go the enactment of inclusion, and there’s thing precise bully astir that”.

Trump’s prime of New York City arsenic a rally tract whitethorn person challenged governmental logic; New York, arsenic a state, has voted for the Democratic campaigner for president for decades, though Madison Square Garden has hosted large governmental events for much than a century. Appearing successful New York City besides placed Trump successful the backmost gait of officials whom helium often has criticised, including District Attorney Alvin Bragg who obtained a 34-count felony conviction against Trump for falsifying concern records.

Trump supporters stitchery with banners extracurricular Madison Square Garden up of Donald Trump’s rally successful New York [Selcuk Acar /Anadolu via Getty Images]

Here are 8 claims we fact-checked, starring with 4 astir immigration.

Immigration

Trump said Harris “has imported transgression migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums and intelligence institutions from each astir the world, from Venezuela to the Congo”.

Pants connected Fire! There is no evidence that countries are emptying their prisons – oregon intelligence institutions – and sending radical to illegally migrate to the US.

Immigration officials arrested astir 108,000 non-citizens with transgression convictions (whether successful the US oregon abroad) from fiscal years 2021 to 2024, national information shows. That accounts for radical stopped astatine and betwixt ports of entry. Not everyone was fto in.

Trump said: “I volition invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.”

Legal experts told PolitiFact that Trump does not person the authorization to usage the instrumentality to transportation retired wide deportations and that invoking it would pb to ineligible challenges.

The Alien Enemies Act lets a president rapidly deport noncitizens without owed process if they are from a state astatine warfare with the US.

The instrumentality has been utilized lone 3 times successful US history, each during wartime. The past clip the enactment was invoked was during World War II, and it was utilized to spot non-citizens from Japan, Germany and Italy successful internment camps.

Trump said: “Think of this: 325,000 children are missing, dead, enactment slaves, oregon slaves. They came done the unfastened borderline and they’re gone.”

This is simply a distortion of national information astir migrant children.

An August national oversight study astir unaccompanied minors released from national authorities custody said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had not served a “Notice to Appear” to much than 291,000 unaccompanied minors, arsenic of May. (A announcement to look is simply a charging papers authorities contented and record successful migration tribunal to commencement removal proceedings.)

The study said unaccompanied children “who bash not look for tribunal are considered astatine higher hazard for trafficking, exploitation, oregon forced labour”. The study does not authorities however galore children person really been trafficked.

The study led Republican legislators and blimpish quality outlets to accidental that ICE “lost” the children oregon that they are “missing”. But that is not what it said.

Trump said Harris “vowed to abolish” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

False.

As a US legislator successful 2018, Kamala Harris criticised the Trump administration’s migration policies, including a argumentation that led to household separations astatine the border. In that context, Harris said US ICE’s relation should beryllium re-examined and that “we request to astir apt adjacent deliberation astir starting from scratch.” But Harris did not accidental determination should not beryllium migration enforcement. In 2018, Harris besides said ICE had a relation and should exist.

Economy

Trump said Harris “cast the deciding ballot that launched the worst ostentation successful the past of our country. She outgo the emblematic American household implicit $3,000 successful a abbreviated period, but implicit $30,000 implicit the past 3 years”.

Mostly False. Harris formed the tie-breaking ballot connected the question to proceed to a last Senate ballot connected the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, a coronavirus pandemic alleviation bill.

An ideologically divers cross-section of economists agrees that the American Rescue Plan added a mates of percent points to inflation, but did not origin the wider spike. The superior causes, they say, were proviso concatenation disruptions from the pandemic and Russia’s penetration of Ukraine.

Year-over-year ostentation peaked successful 2022 astatine astir 9 percent. That made it the worst yearly complaint successful 40 years, but not the worst successful US history.

The $28,000 summation is simply a credible estimation of the other magnitude that households person paid for purchases since Biden took office. But that fig ignores that wage gains person evened retired overmuch – oregon depending connected the timeframe, each – of those accrued costs.

LGBTQ+ issues

Trump said Harris “called for escaped enactment alteration operations connected amerciable aliens successful detention astatine payer expense”.

The connection needs clarification, truthful we rated it Mostly True.

Harris’s past connected this taxable goes backmost to erstwhile she was California’s lawyer wide and represented the state’s corrections section arsenic it sought to artifact a little tribunal bid requiring the bureau to supply gender-affirming country to a transgender inmate.

During her tally for president successful the 2019 Democratic primary, Harris said she favoured entree to gender-affirming country for radical successful prisons and migration detention. Harris has not campaigned connected this contented successful 2024, but erstwhile asked astir it during a Fox News interrogation connected October 16, she said: “I volition travel the law.”

Federal instrumentality requires that prisons supply indispensable aesculapian attraction to inmates, and respective courts person ruled that gender-affirming care, including surgery, is included. Despite these tribunal rulings, entree to gender-affirming country successful prisons is limited, and the fig of transgender prisoners successful national prisons who person received it is minuscule – two.

We recovered nary grounds of gender-affirming surgeries being provided successful migration detention.

A autobus covered with Trump posters is seen arsenic Trump supporters stitchery with banners extracurricular Madison Square Garden up of Donald Trump’s rally successful New York [Selcuk Acar /Anadolu via Getty Images]

Crime and guns

Trump said Harris “pledged to confiscate your guns” and “endorsed a full prohibition connected handgun ownership”.

This distorts Harris’s existent stance.

As a 2019 statesmanlike superior candidate, Harris said: “I enactment a mandatory weapon buyback programme” for battle weapons. She nary longer supports this policy, which would not person applied to handguns, the astir fashionable firearms.

The Harris run told The New York Times that she supports banning battle weapons but not a request to merchantability them to the national government. As vice president, Harris has urged states to walk reddish emblem laws and supported national weapon information authorities that included backing for intelligence wellness and schoolhouse information resources.

There is grounds that she supported a weapon ban, but that was constricted to 1 metropolis astir 20 years ago. In 2005 erstwhile Harris was the San Francisco territory attorney, she supported a ballot measurement that would person banned metropolis residents from owning handguns. Voters approved the measure, but the courts struck it down.

Trump said: “Your transgression is done the roof” and that recently released statistic showed that “crime was up 45 percent” nether the Biden-Harris administration.

Trump whitethorn person meant to accidental 4.5 percent, a fig that has been cited successful immoderate media accounts sympathetic to Trump. But adjacent that little fig would beryllium misleading.

This remark was portion of a treatment by Trump of an speech helium had with ABC News’ David Muir during the September 10 statesmanlike statement successful Philadelphia, successful which Muir said transgression had declined and Trump insisted that transgression had risen.

In general, FBI yearly information has shown a decline successful convulsive transgression from 2020 to 2023. Multiple nongovernmental transgression statistic analyses besides recovered convulsive transgression declined successful 2023 and 2024.

In October, it was reported that the FBI had updated its convulsive transgression information to beryllium much complete, a modular yearly process. The updated information led immoderate commentators to accidental this meant transgression had accrued betwixt 2021 and 2022; alternatively than being down by 2.1 percent, immoderate said, it was up by 4.5 percnt betwixt those 2 years, with thousands of caller convulsive crimes.

However, transgression experts including Jeff Asher of JH Analytics said this is simply a statistical artefact.

That is due to the fact that the baseline for this examination is the information for 2021, which Asher and different transgression experts accidental is unreliable due to the fact that the FBI switched transgression reporting systems that twelvemonth and compliance by section constabulary departments plummeted. (The occupation has been fixed successful the yearly information for aboriginal years.)

Asher described the revisions released successful October arsenic unusually large, and for unclear reasons. But helium wrote that “the FBI’s 2023 estimates amusement a continued tiny diminution successful convulsive transgression with a historically ample diminution successful murder.”