Republican presidential candidate former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday.

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Donald Trump held a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday to kick off the final full week of the presidential campaign, complete with celebrity guests and a new economic proposal. But repeated insults and sometimes racist and misogynistic statements from guest speakers threatened to attract the most attention.

The final weeks of a campaign are often a time when candidates spread a unified message to attract as many voters as possible. Instead, Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden was marked by profanities, racist jokes about Latinos and misogynistic remarks.

The focus could help Trump grab headlines and mobilize some existing supporters, although it is unlikely to attract new voters already turned off by some of the Republican presidential candidate’s rhetoric.

The first speaker at the former president’s rally at Madison Square Garden, tough comedian and podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe, set the tone with a snide joke about welcoming Latinos “with open arms” to the United States while at the same time he made a farewell gesture.

He also denigrated Latinos with a crass joke about having babies and illegal immigration, quipped that Puerto Rico was “a floating island of trash,” and joked that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was “the next OJ Simpson.” could be,” referring to the soccer star who was accused and later acquitted of murdering his ex-wife.

Kelce is dating pop singer Taylor Swift, who said earlier this year she would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has made anti-immigrant rhetoric the centerpiece of his campaign. As president, he also talked about eliminating the automatic right to citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to non-citizens — although many scholars believe changing the law could require a constitutional amendment.

The Trump campaign is currently struggling to get votes from women and Latinos. Polls suggest the gender gap in this year’s election could be the widest ever. In contrast, the Harris campaign has highlighted stories of women whose lives have been threatened by strict abortion bans.

The Harris campaign immediately seized on Hinchcliffe’s comments on Puerto Rico. In a tweet posted after his introduction, Hinchcliffe wrote in response: “These people have no sense of humor.” He also added: “I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone…look at the whole set.”

Defining who is an American

The rally was attended by high-profile Trump supporters, including Terry Bollea – better known as professional wrestler Hulk Hogan – television star Dr. Phil McGraw and singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood.

But other Trump allies appealed to an “us versus them” mentality. Radio host Sid Rosenberg insulted former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party as a whole.

“The whole party – a bunch of degenerates,” he added. “Jew-haters and villains, every one of them.”

Several speakers also insulted Harris, with private equity fund manager Grant Cardone calling her a “fake.” “They and their pimps will destroy our country,” he said.

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson later mocked Harris’ biracial heritage.

“It’s going to be pretty hard (for Democrats) to look at us and say, ‘You know what? Kamala Harris got 85 million votes because she is just that impressive. The first low-IQ Samoan-Malaysian former California prosecutor ever elected president. It was just a wave of popular support.’”

Carlson went beyond insults and gave a nod to the racist “great replacement theory” he has espoused in the past.

“People know that in a country that has been taken over by a leadership that actually despises them and their values ​​and their history and their culture and their customs, they really hate them so much that they are trying to replace them,” he said. “They know someone who actually has affection for them, and that is Donald Trump. And it is necessary.”

That sentiment was later confirmed when former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller told the crowd, “America is for Americans and Americans only.”

Tax credits and the “enemy from within”

After a more than four-hour preliminary program with speakers, Melania Trump made a rare campaign appearance and introduced her husband.

Republican presidential candidate former US President Donald Trump and Melania Trump take the stage at the campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday.

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In his speech, Trump began by laying out his economic message, emphasizing the inflation that has plagued the country under the Biden administration and saying he would fix it.

He also announced a new policy, saying he would introduce a tax credit for people who care for family members at home.

Harris announced her own plan earlier this month to expand Medicare to cover this type of care.

As he often does, Trump also devoted a large portion of his speech to the topic of undocumented immigrants.

“As soon as I take office, the migrant invasion of our country will end and the reconstruction of our country will begin,” he told the crowd.

Trump also took time to address a recent Fox News interview in which he called “radical left-wing lunatics” “the enemy within” and suggested using the military against them.

He stood behind those comments at Sunday night’s rally.

“They are clever and vicious, and we must defeat them,” he said. “And when I say, ‘The enemy from within,’ the other side goes crazy. There will be a noise – “Oh, how can he say that?” – No, they have done very bad things to this country. They are indeed the enemy from within.”

Still, Trump tried to make his speech a message of unity.

“The Republican Party has really become the party of inclusion, and there’s something beautiful about that,” he said toward the end of his remarks.

NPR’s Stephen Fowler contributed to this report.