As the controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden event unfolded, the former president did what he usually does: He pretended there was no controversy.
The event was “the greatest evening anyone’s seen politically,” the Republican boasted at his latest rally in Pennsylvania, even as members of his own team drew the opposite conclusion.
But that wasn’t the only phrase he used. The Associated Press reported:
Urged by some allies to apologize for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took the opposite approach on Tuesday, saying it was an “honor to be involved” in such an event and calling the scene a “lovefest” — the same term he has used to describe the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
He did not appear to be kidding.
Right off the bat, the point the AP raised is a highly relevant detail: Trump previously has used “lovefest” while talking about the insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The larger takeaway is unavoidable: When the Republican candidate talks about “lovefests,” he’s sometimes referring to people engaged in indefensible conduct who love him.
Also notable is the fact that many, including some in his own party, have looked to the former president to express some kind of regret in the wake of his Madison Square Garden fiasco. The more he celebrates his hate-filled gathering, the more obvious it becomes that he sees no need for contrition.
But before we move on altogether, it’s worth taking one last look at the kind of remarks that Trump is so proud of. The New York Times reported:
By the time former President Donald J. Trump took the stage at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, a parade of speakers had already spent hours disparaging Latinos, Black people, Palestinians and Jews; directing misogynistic comments at Vice President Kamala Harris; and echoing language used by the Ku Klux Klan.
The report went on to bolster that assessment with several examples from the far-right rally.
With this in mind, when Trump called the gathering a “lovefest,” and said it was an “honor to be involved” in such an event, it was an unmistakable endorsement of bigotry just days before Election Day.