SAUNDERS: Trump’s Big Apple rally displays lack of discipline, decency

WASHINGTON

When I watched wrestler Hulk Hogan stride to the stage at Donald Trump’s Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden, I knew this would be no ordinary presidential campaign event.

Wearing a neon red and yellow boa, yellow glasses and a red cap, Hogan, 71, ripped apart one of his shirts and told the crowd, “Usually when I’m in Madison Square Garden, I’m body-slamming giants … and I’m cracking people over the head with steel chairs.” (Never heard that before at a campaign event.)

Hogan then took after Trump critics. “I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here. I don’t see no stinkin’ domestic terrorists in here. The only thing I see here are hard-working men and women that are real Americans, brother.”

The event seemed more like Circus Circus — or channel surfing — than a campaign exercise. The roster of speakers who shared the spotlight over six hours also included the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO and Las Vegas resident Dana White, and Dr. Phil. Big names with big footprints.

The base has to look at all that star power and think: A candidate who can fill this iconic arena with gung-ho supporters and big-name celebrities can’t lose.

And yet, other moments during the event signal the reasons Trump could lose.

Hogan also made a crude remark about Kamala Harris. “When I hear Kamala speak,” he said as the audience booed — “it sounds like a script from Hollywood with a really really bad actress.” In mid-sentence, he made the sound of a spit — which follows crude and dishonest suggestions that the vice president slept her way to the top.

(Yes, Harris dated former California Speaker Willie Brown for a time — but if Willie Brown’s backing could get someone into the White House, he’d be Vice President.)

Trump critics also are in high dudgeon about a quote made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, “I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

CNN called the remark “shockingly racist.”

The campaign quickly tried to distance itself from the so-called joke. “It was a comedian who made a joke in poor taste,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.

When you consider what is at stake, you have to wonder how the campaign didn’t foresee that Hinchcliffe could be a problem and prevent it. (I‘d never heard of the comedian before, but it is the job of campaign staff to vet speakers and their scripts, so that when the rally is over, the media are talking about Trump and his A-team, not a cringe-inducing opening act.)

Ditto Hogan’s pantomime.

According to the realclearpolitics national polling average, Trump is ahead of Harris by .1 percent, which means the race is within the margin of error. So when I witness a colossal blunder within days of Nov. 5, I shake my head.

Last week, Harris was losing moral ground when she accused Trump of being a “fascist,” but this week, even Trump supporters have to consider this unforced error and wonder: Where’s the discipline? Where’s the decency?

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders @reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.