Trump attacks Harris at mega-rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has rallied his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base at an event in New York City, again vowing to crack down on migration while slamming his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.

Trump repeatedly attacked migrants during his speech at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, pledging to follow through on his campaign promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in United States history if elected.

“November 5 will be the most important date in the history of our country and together, we will make America powerful again,” said the former president, who painted a portrait of a country plagued by economic and social crises.

Trump was joined by a slew of Republicans and other allies during the event. Many launched into ad hominem attacks against Harris – one speaker called her “the devil” – and used incendiary rhetoric against migrants, immigrant communities, and perceived opponents.

Trump also blamed Harris – whom he described as a “radical left Marxist” who is unintelligent and “unfit” to serve as president – for the problems the country faces. “You’ve destroyed our country,” he said, referring to the US vice president.

The rally comes just nine days before Americans go to the ballot box on November 5 to elect their next president, with polls showing Trump and Harris locked in a neck-and-neck fight for the White House.

The election is hinging on seven critical battleground states – including Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania – where the race remains too close to call.

Reporting from New York on Sunday evening, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher explained that the election will likely come down to a few thousand voters who “are going to make the final verdict” in those swing states.

“And it’s there that the candidates will concentrate their efforts in the last nine days of this election campaign,” Fisher said.

Both the Harris and Trump camps have been urging their supporters to get out to vote in the final stretch of their respective campaigns.

More than 41 million Americans had already voted in early in-person voting or via mail-in ballots by midday on Sunday, according to a tally by the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

Harris was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, making stops at a church, barbershop and a Puerto Rican restaurant before spending time with youth basketball players at a local community centre.

During a rally on Sunday evening, the Democratic vice president sought to portray her Republican rival as a divisive force in American politics and warned of the “high stakes” of the upcoming vote.

But she struck a more conciliatory note than at some of her most recent campaign events, where Harris has accused Trump of being a “fascist” and “unhinged”.

That may be a result of a recent warning from a leading pro-Harris political action committee, which said such attacks against the Republican may not be connecting with voters, The New York Times reported.

“Let’s approach this moment in a way that in the face of strangers, we see a neighbour,” Harris said during her Philadelphia event.

“Let’s talk with each other about what we have in common,” she said.

“Let’s build community and let’s knock on doors. Let’s text and call potential voters. Let’s reach out to our family and our friends and our classmates and our neighbours, tell them about the stakes in this election and tell them about their power.”

But Harris’s camp seized on some of the disparaging remarks from Trump and other speakers during the event at Madison Square Garden, including a comedian who said Puerto Rico was “a floating island of garbage”.

“Puerto Rico is home to some of the most talented, innovative and ambitious people in our natin. And Puerto Ricans deserve a president who sees and invest[s] in that strength,” Harris said in a campaign video shared on social media.

The exchange could provide a boost to Harris, as there are large Puerto Rican populations in the key swing states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

As the campaign blitz continues ahead of election day, the Democrat will be going back to Michigan – another key swing state – on Monday to hold a rally alongside her vice-presidential running mate, Tim Walz.

For his part, Trump will be in Atlanta, Georgia, to try to rally his supporters in a state that he narrowly lost to Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020.