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Trump says wants to close campaign "with a beautiful bang"

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Billionaire supporter Elon Musk to speak at rally

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Event could help boost Republican candidates in New York

congressional races

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Hillary Clinton likens Trump rally to 1939 pro-Nazi event

By Steve Holland and James Oliphant

NEW YORK, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Republican presidential

candidate Donald Trump will headline a rally at New York's

Madison Square Garden on Sunday, creating a high-profile

spectacle aimed at generating media buzz in a state that he is

likely to lose on Nov. 5.

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, who is supporting Trump's

reelection bid with his X social media platform and enormous

wealth, will be among the featured speakers, the Trump campaign

announced.

Trump, a New York celebrity for decades, will use the event

at the iconic venue known for Knicks games and Billy Joel

concerts to deliver his closing argument against Democratic Vice

President Kamala Harris.

"We want to close it out with a beautiful bang," he said

last week.

Polls show the rival candidates are neck and neck with just

over a week until Election Day. More than 38 million votes have

already been cast.

Trump has been seeking to tie Harris to the Biden

administration's handling of immigration and the economy. Last

week, Trump debuted a new attack line: "She broke it, and I

promise you I will fix it."

Harris will kick off her own appeal to last-minute voters

with a speech on Tuesday on the National Mall in Washington,

where she will try to sharply draw a contrast between herself

and Trump.

A Republican presidential candidate has not won the state of

New York since Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984. Democratic

President Joe Biden won the state by 23 percentage points in

2020, and a Siena College poll this week found Harris leading

Trump by 19 points, 58% to 39%.

But Trump, who held a rally in Long Island, New York in

September, has said he is making a play for the state.

'SHOW OF STRENGTH'

By staging the attention-grabbing event in the world's

biggest media market, Trump could help boost Republican

candidates in New York congressional races. The state has seven

competitive seats that could help determine whether the party

holds on to the U.S. House of Representatives next year.

It could also give Trump a boost in nearby northeastern

Pennsylvania, a battleground state that has increasingly become

home for New York commuters.

Trump's campaign said the event at the 19,500-seat

arena, which can cost upwards of $1 million to rent, was sold

out.

"This is an attempt by Trump to dominate the headlines in

the final days of the election," said Republican strategist Ryan

Williams. "He has a flair for the dramatic. I think he wants to

have a show of strength with a stadium full of people."

A crowd of some 30,000 people attended Harris' rally with

superstar singer Beyonce on Friday night in Houston.

Trump's 2016 presidential opponent, Democrat Hillary

Clinton, has accused him of "re-enacting" a pro-Nazi rally that

was held at the Garden in 1939 on the eve of World War Two.

Trump's critics have long accused him of empowering white

supremacists through his dehumanizing and racist rhetoric.

Her comments drew a rebuke from Trump and Republican

leaders.

"She said it's just like the 1930s. No, it's not," Trump

said at a rally in Michigan on Friday. "This is called Make

America Great Again, that's all this is."

Republicans Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, and

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, issued a joint

statement saying Clinton's rhetoric "risks inviting yet another

would-be assassin" to target Trump and "endangers" American

lives.

Other speakers at the Sunday event include Robert F. Kennedy

Jr., the former independent presidential candidate who dropped

out of the race and backed Trump, conservative commentator

Tucker Carlson, and Howard Lutnick, who is chairman and CEO of

the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of

the Trump White House transition team.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, has

traveled across Pennsylvania on Trump's behalf and has given

$119 million to his pro-Trump spending group that is helping

turn out voters in the most closely contested states.

The group, America PAC, is also giving away $1 million

per day to randomly selected registered voters in battleground

states who sign its online petition. The Justice Department has

sent a letter to America PAC warning that the giveaways may

violate federal law, CNN reported.