Trump makes triumphant return to Madison Sq Garden

New York, Nov 17 : US President-elect Donald Trump has made a triumphant return to the Madison Square Garden (MSG) with his entourage of high-level nominees and advisers to watch a mixed martial arts championship.

He was welcomed to shouts of “USA, USA!” that was the rallying cry of his campaign.

The visit to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was his first appearance before a mass audience since winning the election, and it was dominated by a crowd of mixed martial arts fans that reflects the most hard-core of his supporters, young men, although people of other ethnicities in the crown..

He was accompanied by Tulsi Gabbard, his nominee for director of national intelligence, and his leaders for the proposed Office of Government Efficiency, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary pick, and his now ever-present adviser Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire entrepreneur, and Vivek Ramaswamy, the pharmaceutical multimillionaire.

His sentencing had been set in the city on Tuesday for his conviction in the “hush money” case, but the hearing has been postponed to November 26, as his lawyers and local prosecutors, as well as the judge, grapple with the constitutional and political implications of sentencing a man who will take over as the President in about two months.

Trump held a massive rally at the MSG, the week before the election, which was an omen for the broadening of his base among minorities and its solidifying among the working class.

Even though Vice President Kamala Harris prevailed in the deep blue city, Trump had increased his share of votes by 7 per cent to 30 per cent from the 23 per cent he had won against President Biden in 2020 – a trend of across the country that vaulted him to the presidency in terms of the popular votes as well the Electoral College votes.

The UFC champion, Jon Jones, presented Trump with his championship belt and told the roaring crowd, “I also wanna say a big, big thank you to President Donald Trump for being here tonight”.

Trump did not speak at the event.

Mixed martial arts is a virtually no-holds-barred, crude type of fighting where contestants can resort to boxing, wrestling, and martial arts.

Jones won with a knock-out kick to his rival Stipe Miocic.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s nominee for White House director of communications, had held the same post at the UFC.

The visit to New York was his second outing from his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, where he has been working on his transition.

On Wednesday, he went to Washington for a meeting with Biden.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a massive rally in 2014 during his New York visit after his first national election victory.