As the US election enters its final days, the candidates are making their closing pitches to voters, and calling in the big guns to help them. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have Michelle and Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift and the closest thing America has to a queen (Beyoncé). Their argument: a Harris presidency would mean ensuring American freedoms, including the protection of abortion rights, and would serve as a bulwark against Trumpian authoritarianism and a democracy-eroding Republican Party.
Donald Trump and JD Vance, on the other hand, invited a smattering of friends, family members, lackeys, has-beens (Hulk Hogan, the US TV personality “Dr Phil” McGraw) and who’s-thats (such as comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”) to New York City’s Madison Square Garden for a pre-election rally. The Trump political adviser Stephen Miller intoned that “America is for Americans and Americans only”, as Trump’s immigrant wife, Melania, and his immigrant billionaire benefactor Elon Musk looked on. One speaker said that Harris had “pimp handlers”, as if she were a sex worker; ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson called her “low-IQ”. It was a circus show for Trump: we hold all the same bigotries, and we hate all the same people as you.
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