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On Sunday, former President Donald Trump held a rally at New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden that was supposed to serve as a splashy show of strength and support in his hometown. 

What happened instead was a barrage of inflammatory comments built on months of racist and gendered attacks and online disinformation that Trump and his top allies have lobbed against his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris, who is Black and Indian-American, would be the first woman president if elected. 

Then came a television ad calling Harris “the c-word,” paid for by the super PAC created by businessman Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has thrown his resources and influence behind electing Trump. The “c-word” refers to “communist,” but with a clear innuendo to a gendered slur. 

Harris hasn’t emphasized her identities in her campaign and has seldom directly engaged with the attacks framed around them. But former First Lady Michelle Obama explicitly called out the unfair expectations and double standards she believes Harris faces while rallying for her in Kalamazoo, Michigan, over the weekend. 

“But for Trump, we expect nothing at all, no understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals,” Obama said. “Instead, too many people are willing to write off his childish, mean-spirited antics by saying, well, Trump’s just being Trump, rather than question his horrible behavior.” 

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Harris called Trump’s rally in New York “absolutely something that is intended to, and fanning the fuel of division in the country.” 

“That’s why people are exhausted with him,” she said, according to pool reports. “People are literally ready to turn the page.”

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of gendered and racist attacks from Trump allies at Sunday’s rally: 

• Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson used racist and sexist rhetoric to fuel baseless claims of election fraud and cast doubt on a potential Harris victory at the Madison Square Garden rally. “It’s going to be pretty hard for them to look at us and say, Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s so impressive,” Carlson said. “The first Samoan Malaysian low I.Q. former California prosecutor ever to be elected president, it was just a groundswell of popular support.”  
• Radio host Sid Rosenberg called 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who Trump continues to invoke in his rallies, “a sick bastard” and “a sick son of a bitch” and the Democratic Party “a bunch of degenerates.”  
• David Rem, a “childhood friend” of Trump’s with a checkered past, referred to Harris as “the Antichrist” and “the devil” before brandishing a crucifix. 
• Businessman Grant Cardone said Harris is “a fake, a fraud and a pretender,” adding, “Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” 
• Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a number of racist and misogynistic comments targeting Black, Arab-American, Jewish and Latinx people. He called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage” and said of Puerto Ricans, who are American citizens, “These Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
  
  Trump’s campaign pointedly distanced itself from Hinchcliffe’s comments about Puerto Rico, which came as the Harris campaign is making a concerted pitch to voters of Puerto Rican descent in critical battleground states like Pennsylvania. In the wake of the rally, major celebrities, including Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Luis Fonsi, took to social media to share Harris’ plan for Puerto Rico and denounce Hinchcliffe’s insults. In response to condemnation from Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, Hinchcliffe tweeted: “I’m a comedian Tim…might be time to change your tampon.”

The remarks on MSG’s stage built on months’ worth of similar sexualized and gendered attacks on Harris: 

• Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance has denigrated Democratic politicians, including Harris, as “childless cat ladies” in the past. Vance recently said on comedian Tim Dillon’s podcast that Harris has a “very fraudulent laugh” and said of her: “There’s too much of a schoolmarm thing going on.” 
• In late August, Fox News host Jesse Watters said on air that Harris “would be paralyzed in the Situation Room while the generals have their way with her.” The remark, which Watters later denied he meant “in a sexual nature,” drew immediate pushback from fellow Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.  
• Trump has long reposted sexually lewd and degrading content about Harris and Clinton on Truth Social, his social media platform. He’s also falsely claimed that Harris, whose father is Jamaican, only recently started identifying as Black. 

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