Thousands of excited and enthusiastic backers of Donald Trump began pouring into Madison Square Garden Sunday afternoon, after waiting in the chilly weather for hours, and in some cases days, to hear the former president speak.
At least 9,000 were let in as of 12:30 p.m., with close to 19,000 still waiting, according to very rough estimates from The Post and cops on the scene.
Some of the attendees had arrived as early as Friday and battled through urges to use the bathroom amid a lack of porta-potties during the lengthy wait.
Undeterred by the chilly, 40-degree weather, throngs of people, many of whom sat in lawn chairs, poured into barricaded streets used as de facto holding pens and battled through urges to use the bathroom amid a lack of porta-potties in anticipation of former President Donald Trump’s arrival.
Some 2,000 people camped out overnight and about 10,000 were lined up by 10 a.m., according to estimates by cops and The Post.
“We love Trump,” Patty Vitala told the Post, “I love Trump and it’s cold out but it’s worth the wait. We want to make sure we get in.”
Vitala, 57, and her friends got to the Garden at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. They even rented a hotel room, but elected to stay out on the street overnight. She is from Spotswood, New Jersey.
“I was almost going to doze off. We do have a hotel room to go back to change but we’ll most likely be sitting out here for the night so we don’t lose our seats and make sure we get in.”
By The Post’s rough count, over 2,000 people had camped out overnight outside Madison Square Garden to secure a decent spot in line. By the morning, well over 10,000 lined the streets.
To accommodate the monster crowd, police barricaded off the roads between 33rd Street and 32nd Street to 5th Avenue as holding pens, which were filling up at a servant clip as of Sunday morning.
But prospective rally-goers quickly faced struggles against nature’s call. Bottles of urine littered the lines to get in, from people who refused to surrender their spots. Some used pop-up privacy showers to take care of their business.
“This is just like a screw you to the Trump supporters from New York City,” Jennifer Sasser, 46, who drove from Wisconsin and arrived near the front of the line Friday morning, groused.
“I told the officers, I had a hysterectomy 5 weeks ago and I’m Type 2 diabetic. I told the officer, I have to use the potty, can I come back in after? They said, ‘No, you leave you’re not coming back here,'” she added. “And there was no plan to put in a porta-potty.”
Dorothea Ohlandt, 59, who came from North Carolina and arrived at 10 a.m. on Friday to wait in line, said the lack of porta potties was unusual.
“Why didn’t they put any porta potties out here for us? Why did the city decide to not do that? It’s like a third-world country! We’re peeing in bags and little cups and we had to put up a little portable privacy shower,” she bemoaned.
“New York City is the only place where we’ve come to a rally and we had to do this. Every other place we had to go to for Trump rallies has a porta potty for the people waiting for the rally.”
One solution some of the MAGA faithful concocted in line was to simply avoid liquids.
“You just can’t drink any fluids,” Kimberly Vayda, a single mom accompanied by her 7-year-old daughter, told The Post. “We got here a little after 6 a.m. and she loves Trump so we’re going to tough it out and not drink or eat anything. It is kind of insane that there’s no provision at all for people who are going to be waiting this long.”
Some Trump backers also received an unhappy welcome from New York during their arrival.
Kristina Viskup, 24, from Whitestone, Queens arrived with her brother William Viskup, 27, just before midnight on Sunday, and recounted getting harrassed for being a Trump supporter.
“It was cold but as soon as we hit Penn we started seeing crazy homeless people like running at us and attacking anybody with a Trump hat,” she recalled. “They would go out of their way to push into people and say get the f— out of our way! But my brother was with me so I felt safe.”
“Then we got here to Madison Square Garden and all the Trump supporters were here and they were all the anxiety we had run away. Everyone was just so kind as soon as we got here.”
Doors opened around noon for Trump’s rally, but official programming wasn’t slated to kick off until around 5 p.m.
Accompanying Trump will be a roster of MAGA world stars such as space and electric car guru Elon Musk, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, GOP vice presidential hopeful JD Vance and more.
“I came because I needed to spread the message about what can happen if you keep electing the wrong person,” Matt Joseph, 35, who ventured all the way down from Ontario, Canada said.
“I know what it’s like to live in a country where we elect the wrong person again and again and now our country is unrecognizable. That’s what will happen here if [Vice President Kamala] Harris gets elected. I’m here to make sure everybody understands how important this election really is.”
Barbara, 54, who works for a school district in Sussex, NJ, was the earliest of the early birds – arriving at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“I never expected to be first in line,” Barbara tells the Post. “I’ve never been to Madison Square Garden and I just thought this was going to be a magical event.”
When asked how she’s passed the time she said she’d been playing Words With Friends.
Scott Williams, 62, came in from Staten Island with his girlfriend and got to 33rd Street at 11 a.m.
“Well, I’ve never been to Madison Square Garden, so that’s nice,” Williams said, adding, “I’ve never voted in my life until this year.”
He also plans to stay out on the street tonight in sleeping bags – “It’s better than paying $500 to $600 for a hotel. A little bit of cold ain’t no problem.”
Debbie Carrol, 69, came from Long Island Saturday to see the former president on Sunday.
“He’s home. This is home. They should give him a good welcoming,” she told the Post.
“I don’t plan on sleeping, too much adrenaline.”
The Empire State is not thought to be in play during the Nov. 5 presidential election, but Trump is keen on capitalizing on the headlines from the stunning trek into deep blue territory so close to Election Day.
Moreover, the rally is seen by some GOP strategists as a means of boosting turnout for some down-ballot Republicans locked in tight races and whittling away at the popular vote.
Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in Houston, Texas last Friday, a state that is widely seen as a Republican shoo-in for the presidential contest.
https://nypost.com/2024/10/27/us-news/nyc-trump-supporters-camping-overnight-outside-msg-in-anticipation-of-mega-maga-rally/
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