Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday.

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Donald Trump hosted a splashy rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday to kick off the final full week of campaigning for the presidency, complete with celebrity guests and a new economic proposal.

But repeated insults and sometimes racist and misogynistic comments from guest speakers threatened to attract most attention.

The final weeks of a campaign are often the times when candidates push a unifying message to rally as many voters as possible. Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden was instead marked by swear words, racist jokes about Latinos and misogynistic comments.

The focus could help Trump make headlines and mobilize some existing supporters, although it is unlikely to bring in new voters already turned off by the Republican presidential candidate’s rhetoric.

The first speaker at the former president’s rally at Madison Square Garden, comedian and podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe, set the tone with a disparaging joke about welcoming Latinos to the U.S. “with open arms” as he made a shouting motion.

He also disparaged Latinos with a crude joke about baby making and illegal immigration, joked that Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage,” and joked that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce “might be the next O.J. Simpson would be,” referring to the football star who was accused and later acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife.

Kelce is dating pop singer Taylor Swift, who said earlier this year that she would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has made anti-immigrant rhetoric the centerpiece of his campaign. As president, he also talked about ending the automatic right to citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to noncitizens — though many scholars agree that changing the law could require a constitutional amendment.

The Trump campaign is currently fighting to get votes from women and Latinos. Polls show the gender gap in this year’s election could be the widest ever. The Harris campaign, on the other hand, has highlighted stories of women whose lives were threatened by strict abortion bans.

The Harris campaign immediately seized on Hinchcliffe’s comments about Puerto Rico. In a tweet posted after his introduction, Hinchcliffe wrote in response: “These people have no sense of humor.” He also added, “I love Puerto Rico and vacationing there. I made fun of everyone… watch the whole set.”

Determining who is an American

The rally brought together high-profile Trump supporters, including Terry Bollea – better known as professional wrestler Hulk Hogan – television personality Dr. Phil McGraw and singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood.

But other Trump allies appealed to an “us versus them” mentality. Radio host Sid Rosenberg insulted former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as the Democratic Party as a whole.

“The whole party – a bunch of degenerates,” he added. ‘Jew haters and base ones, every one of them.’

Several speakers also insulted Harris, with private equity fund manager Grant Cardone calling her a “fake.” “She and her pimps will destroy our country,” he said.

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson later joked about Harris’ mixed-race heritage.

“It’s going to be pretty hard (for Democrats) to look at us and say, ‘You know what? Kamala Harris got 85 million votes because she is so impressive. As the first low-IQ Samoan-Malaysian former California prosecutor ever elected president. It was just a groundswell of popular support.’”

Carlson went beyond insults and nodded to the racist “great replacement theory” he has espoused in the past.

“People know that in a country that has been taken over by a leadership class that actually despises them and their values, their history, their culture and their customs, they really hate them so much that they are trying to replace them,” he said. “They know someone who really has affection for them and that is Donald Trump. And it is rewarded.”

That sentiment was echoed later, when former Trump White House aide Stephen Miller told the crowd, “America is only for Americans and Americans.”

Tax credits and ‘enemy from within’

After a more than four-hour support program with speakers, Melania Trump made a rare appearance during the campaign, introducing her husband.

The Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump and Melania Trump took the stage at the campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday.

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In his speech, Trump began laying out his economic message, highlighting the inflation that hit the country under the Biden administration and saying he would fix it.

He also announced a new policy and said he would introduce a tax credit for people caring for relatives at home.

Harris announced her own plan earlier this month to expand Medicare to include that type of care.

Trump also devoted much of his speech, as he often does, to the topic of undocumented immigrants.

“As soon as I come to power, the invasion of migrants into our country will end and the recovery of our country will begin,” he told the crowd.

Trump also took time to address a recent Fox News interview in which he had characterized “radical left-wing lunatics” as “the enemy from within” and suggested using the military against them.

He stood by these comments at Sunday night’s meeting.

“They are smart and mean, and we have to beat them,” he said. “And when I say, ‘the enemy from within,’ the other side goes crazy. There’s a noise – ‘oh, how can he say that?’ – no, they’ve done very bad things to this country. They are indeed the enemy from within.”

However, Trump still tried to make his speech a message of unity.

“The Republican Party has really become the party of inclusivity, and there’s something nice about that,” he said at the end of his remarks.

NPR’s Stephen Fowler contributed to this report.