Donald Trump brought his fascist campaign for presidency to the heart of midtown Manhattan on Sunday, taking the stage at Madison Square Garden and looking out over a crowd of his fanatically loyal Red Hats.

With nine days left until the election, the campaign stop seemed like a finale ― one more grand provocation meant to show that Trump could win this thing, that he could walk into enemy territory months after a would-be assassin’s bullet pierced his ear, garnering enough supporters in this progressive, diverse city to fill up the “the world’s most famous arena.”

And that he could do it even after running one of the most racist presidential campaigns in history, and even though earlier this year a jury downtown convicted him on 34 charges of illegally influencing the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn star, and even though earlier this year the New York state attorney general won a $450 million civil fraud judgment against him.

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Trump’s single-minded focus on nativism and anti-immigrant bigotry has defined what experts say is a fascistic 2024 presidential campaign. Echoing Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric, Trump and his campaign have accused immigrants of “poisoning the blood” of the nation through “bad genes” and infectious disease.