Jewish Republicans are denouncing MSNBC for comparing former President Donald Trump’s historic Big Apple rally to a Nazi event, mocking the left-wing network for its hysteria and posting pictures of themselves at the campaign gathering.
More than 20,000 Trump supporters packed Madison Square Garden Sunday night for a marathon rally featuring MAGA luminaries and capped off with a rousing and bombastic speech by the former president.
Many Jews were also in attendance, who have been taking to X to voice their outrage and rip the network for its careless comparison.
“I’m Jewish. I went to the Nazi rally. I’m voting for Trump. Any questions?” wrote one X user in a post viewed nearly 900,000 times, complete with a picture from inside the rally.
MSNBC has faced significant criticism for its over-the-top coverage of the rally, including a segment where host Jonathan Capehart called the MSG rally “chilling” while juxtaposing black and white footage of an infamous 1939 Nazi rally with live footage of Sunday’s event.
“In 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader – Adolf Hitler – packed the Garden for a so-called ‘pro-America rally,’” he said in a widely panned broadcast, ignoring the fact that the archival clip was held in a previous iteration of Madison Square Garden that wasn’t even in the same location.
Auschwitz survivor Jerry Wartski, 94, who also attended the so-called “Nazi rally,” slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for encouraging such comparisons in a video post on X.
“I know more about Hitler than Kamala will ever know in a thousand lifetimes. For her to accuse President Trump of being like Hitler is the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my 75 years of living in the United States.”
Other self-identified Jewish X users pressed for more specifics about how exactly the event — which was attended by a diverse crowd including black people, gay people, Asians, Jews, Latinos and more — could possibly be construed as a Nazi rally.
“Orthodox Jew here. Please explain to all of us Orthodox Jewish Trump supporters (the vast majority of Orthodox Jews) how it’s a ‘Nazi rally.’”
Another video posted by lifelong New Yorker Debra Lea viewed more than 1.1 million times explained in great detail why the network’s comparison is preposterous.
“There were so many Jews there, just like myself, there [were] Israeli flags, and nearly every single speaker talked about their commitment to upholding the relationship between US and Israel,” she said, wearing a Star of David pendant and a black MAGA hat with orange lettering.
“Not to mention all the Latinos for Trump, Gays for Trump, and nearly every other group that would never have been allowed in if this was actually a Nazi rally.”
An X user critiqued the readiness with which so many left-wing media consumers bought into the comparisons.
“Not picking a political side here, but calling the Trump rally a Nazi campaign is so anti-patriotic. There were many races speaking at that campaign and none of them were about killing all the Jews. Y’all lost in this media propaganda.”
Pressed by a reporter at a campaign event Tuesday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz — who took heat for likening the MSG rally to a Nazi gathering earlier in the week — offered a half-hearted, mealy-mouthed double-down on his incendiary rhetoric.
“I know what I saw, and I’ll leave it at that.”
At a campaign event in Coplay, Pennsylvania Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. expressed bewilderment at the comparison.
“Trump at Madison Square Garden, there was once a Nazi rally there 90 years ago. What’s your point?” Trump Jr. shot back from the stump at a shooting range in purple Lehigh County.
“I think Taylor Swift just played Madison Square Garden,” he continued, to laughter from the crowd. “Does that make her a Nazi?”
