What Happened In MSG Last Week Happened Before In 1939: A Nazi Rally

You cannot tell me that this wasn’t a Nazi platform when you look at the messaging.

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via the Holocaust Museum

In 1933, a political rally was held in the heart of Madison Square Garden, New York City. It was not a Republican or Democrat convention. It was not for union labor or anything like that. 

It was thrown by the German American Bund, an offshoot of a pro-German political group heavily supported by Germany’s National Socialist (Nazi) party. 

According to the Holocaust Museum, the German American Bund’s membership never exceeded 25,000 on paper. In practice, though, the crowds rallies drew were fairly shocking.

In recent years, images of one of their rallies went viral as a warning to our society to never let it happen again. 

It’s easy to see why. As a person who was born in the mid-80s, it was hard for me to imagine a world where people would openly hail Hitler in the middle of New York City. 

Our American schools tend to make it seem like every American was anti-Nazi. This wasn’t true. Millions of Americans were Nazi sympathizers who hated Jews just as much as the people voting for Hitler in Germany. 

In fact, one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the decade had ties to right-wing sympathizers. (The Sodder child disappearance was said to have happened as a result of father Sodder’s opposition to Benito Mussolini.)

It’s a fact that is so frequently glossed over, we generally don’t have it sink in. America had a lot of Hitler and Mussolini supporters — more than we ever really want to admit to, even on paper. 

In the winter of 1939, the German American Bund proved it by renting out one of the largest stadiums in existence at the time: New York’s own MSG. At the event, speakers decried the existence of Jewish people and called for purity. 

When mentions of JFK were spoken, the crowd booed. When mentions of Hitler were added to speeches, the crowd cheered. It was a Nazi rally, through and through. 

A journalist in the crowd, Dorothy Thompson, loudly mentioned that the speaker was speaking “bunk,” only to be escorted out of the crowd. Free speech isn’t a real value of conservatives. They only value it when it’s their speech. 

The idea of Nazis rallying in a place as large as Madison Square Garden is shocking, but it’s not fictional. It happened once, was a massive shock to the media at the time, and resulted in massive protests. But, it still happened. 

It’s often said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but rather, rhymes.

Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally was like something out of the 1930s — and no, not in a good way. The entire rally started off with a “comedian’s” concept of humor targeting women and minorities. 

Most famously, said “comedian” shocked audiences by calling Puerto Rico, a US territory, a “floating pile of garbage.” The rally then devolved into speakers simply shouting obscenities and spewing hatred, to the applause of followers.

Some more astute viewers may have noticed that the recent Trump rally also had imagery that seemed reminiscent of certain political movements during the 1940s. It’s worth noting that this is not the first time Trump or the GOP used Nazi imagery. 

The CPAC meeting in 2021 had a floor that was allegedly modeled after Odal, a rune associated with Nazi imagery. While the floor this year was more normal, the messaging remained the same: hatred, racial purity, and other crap. 

The 2024 MSG Trump Rally involved many racial stereotypes churned up, including how “Latinos love making babies” as well as jokes about Black Americans eating watermelon. 

Another speaker claimed that Harris was managed by “pimp handlers,” a bold-faced lie. Other speakers even called for the open “slaughter” of people. 

Many journalists, myself included, noticed the similarities between 1939 and 2024. 

It’s hard not to notice the similarities. Both rallies involved wildly racist sayings and calls for the slaughter of people. Both rallies had uncannily similar calls for traditionalism. Both also used dog whistles. 

Heck, these rallies were even hosted in the same venue. 

But, you don’t have to take my word for it. Look at what other journalists said about the rally:

“Former Trump aide Stephen Miller, as is his habit, went directly for the Nazi playbook saying, “America is for Americans and Americans only.” Tucker Carlson came out to offer more racist slurs about Harris.” 

— David Rothkopf, The Daily Beast

Yes, the most recent rally did, in fact, use “America first,” a nod to the old Nazi sloan, “Germany first.”

“Trump’s rally featured speakers who had previously made racist and antisemitic remarks. Those include Trump himself, who has referred to immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the nation, echoing Adolf Hitler.” 

— Russell Contreras, Axios

To the GOP’s credit, Axios noted that the GOP vehemently denies being fascist. Oh, and as a “bonus,” they didn’t use blatant Nazi imagery this year. (How sad is it that I have to specify that they didn’t do that this year?)

And Hulk Hogan said he didn’t see Nazis in the crowd, because of course, the guy who has been under fire for racism should be the judge of that.

The GOP needs to stop being offended when people call them out on their fascist, racist garbage.

Obviously, GOP officials are totally upset that people are calling them fascist, racist, and sexist. The old phrase of, “It’s just a bunch of jokes!” was used by more than one individual. 

The audience was then told that “people need to stop being offended” by such jokes. Let me explain why we need to make that phrase and the joke defense stop.

During the 1930s, racism and hatred were rarely ever disguised through jokes. It was a stone-cold sober event where people just openly hated those who were different from them. 

Today, racial hatred and misogyny are not as socially acceptable across the table. Due to the new stigma around hatred, Schrodinger’s Douchebag was born. 

Schrodinger’s Douchebag, for those who don’t want to click the link, describes a person who says hateful, offensive things to others. In most cases, they are 100 percent serious about what they say. 

However, they are not brave enough to face the social ramifications of being outed as racist or sexist. No, they’re precious snowflakes like that. So when people get offended, the Douchebag backpedals saying, “It’s just a joke!”

It’s almost never a joke. It’s especially not a joke when it’s hurtful to people in the audience. A joke is only good if everyone in the audience laughs. A joke is only a joke if it’s not rooted in seriousness. 

For many people, the MSG Trump rally was the #maskoff moment.

There have been so many moments where the GOP told Americans who they are, yet few of those moments actually stopped their voters from siding with them. 

You would think the leak of Project 2025 would have changed minds. You would have thought that the end of Roe v. Wade by the Russian-controlled courts would have changed minds.

While January 6th helped snap some out of the spell the cult of MAGA cast upon them, it seems like the MSG rally was truly the final nail in the coffin for the Trump train. 

It’s impossible to ignore the similarities between the rallies in 1939 and 2024. We, as a country, said “Never Again,” when it came to fascism in America. 

And yet, here we are. Watching it again.

Maybe we’ll stop it once more. 

If we can wake up. 

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That hair, tho…