Trump's Madison Square Garden lineup tells voters all they need to know

A group of people with giant lighted crosses outside Madison Square Garden

Oct. 28, 2024 1:24 PM PT

There’s a colloquialism often said in the Black community when trying to decide whether to attend a social gathering: “Who all over there?”

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LZ Granderson

LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports and navigating life in America.

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Playwright Torie Wiggins, who recently wrote a play of the same title, said: “It really speaks to the level of comfort someone has in dominant spaces. … It just really means, what am I about to walk into, and am I prepared?”

I wonder if the Puerto Ricans who attended Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday were prepared to hear the territory called an “island of garbage.” I wonder if the Black attendees were ready to hear watermelon jokes or listen to Dr. Phil talk about the hard work that went into building this country … without mentioning the trans-Atlantic slave trade or the institution of slavery. Were the women who attended prepared to hear the misogyny? Were queer conservatives ready for the homophobia and transphobia?

In these final days before the election, when roughly 80 million Americans are considering casting a ballot for Trump, do they know who all over there in MAGA-land?

Because while you may be prone not to take Trump’s rhetoric too seriously, the reality is that many of his followers do. And sometimes they show up in spaces with more than red baseball caps and racist jokes. Heavily armed militia members and radicalized lone wolves are also listening to the violent threats directed at teachers, women, immigrants, librarians, LGBTQ+ Americans, journalists, moderate Republicans, doctors, Democrats, poll workers, “RINOs,” people of color, members of Congress. Trump told a white nationalist group that was ready to kill for him to “stand back and stand by.”

You might be tempted to dismiss this as just talk. It isn’t.

Violence between a Trump voter and an election worker in Texas occurred on the first day of early voting this year in San Antonio. In 2019, a gunman slaughtered 25 in El Paso, saying “this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion” and that immigrants were trying to replace white people. Apparently, the 2017 clash between white supremacists and civil-rights demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va. — where “Unite the Right” ralliers chanted “Jews will not replace us” and where one woman died — was a precursor of things to come, not a one-off event.

Yes, Trump rallies sometimes have people of color in attendance. Many women back the former president. There are LGBTQ+ people and immigrants who support him. However, in MAGA-land, their membership comes with restrictions.

MAGA is a space that temporarily tolerates those who are different, for the sake of votes in a tight election. But Trump and his proxies celebrate only supporters who represent the homogenous picture of America that Trump has long envisioned — straight, U.S.-born white Christians who put Trump above God and country. And as in any space where one is merely tolerated, as soon as one’s usefulness has expired, the tolerance ends.

“Who all over there?” isn’t simply about who is in attendance. It’s about the energy of the space. Who is embraced, and who is loosely attached. Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor, is known for writing the poem “First They Came” about the creeping slippery slope by which most Germans allowed the Nazis to take over in the 1930s and 1940s. What’s less often discussed about him is that he initially supported the rise of Adolf Hitler. The hatred spewed wasn’t directed at him — at first. “Then they came for me,” Niemöller wrote, “and there was no one left to speak for me.”

I wonder how confident many Trump-inclined voters are that the MAGA movement’s vision for America ultimately will include them. You can’t look to Trump for an answer. “Who all over there?” isn’t about the host; it’s about the attendees setting the vibe at the party.

In Trump’s first campaign, he was endorsed by the newspaper of the KKK, and he courted Holocaust deniers. In 2022, he dined with Holocaust deniers. In 2024, Trump made Tucker Carlson a face of the “closing argument” rally at Madison Square Garden — just after Carlson promoted a Holocaust denier on his show. So, if you want to know who all is over there in MAGA-land, there’s part of your answer.

These are the people who want to eliminate the Department of Education, this is the movement that banned “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Never forget Republicans are only throwing the party, it’s MAGA that is showing up.

On the other side, look who shows up for Harris.

Days before Vice President Kamala Harris and former First Lady Michelle Obama joined forces at a rally in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Saturday, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), national co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, met with a small group of supporters for lunch at a restaurant not far from Western Michigan University. There were students who were first-time voters as well as members of the community still somewhat on the fence about Harris.

“When you look at the politicians you can trust, the politicians you wonder whether or not you can believe the words they are saying, I can tell you every time she says she’s going to lift as she climbs, she means it because she’s been lifting me as she’s been climbing,” Crockett said. “This is somebody that will call randomly to inspire me and uplift me, even as sitting vice president.”

Crockett’s story is very similar to one former South Carolina state representative Bakari Sellers shared on a Zoom call at the beginning of Harris’ campaign. He said Harris would check in on him and his family often as they were dealing with a complicated pregnancy.

And that story of compassion is very similar to how President Obama characterized Harris in a Zoom call with voters on Sunday, the day of Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.

Harris herself met with Latino voters in Philadelphia on Sunday to talk about her economic plan to help middle-class families.

For me, the question of who to vote for is almost a distraction. Voting is a single act on a single day. Any candidate can be tolerated for a day, or even an election cycle. What happens afterward is what counts.

How can you know what will happen? Just look at the two camps and ask: “Who all over there?”

@LZGranderson