In the final week of his campaign, former President Donald Trump will check off an item on his campaign bucket list on Sunday: a rally at the iconic Madison Square Garden. The avid Broadway enthusiast will present a matinee performance, complete with musical guests and a host of Republican allies.

It’s a moment Trump has long said he wants to experience in the state where he faced criminal and civil trials, became a convicted felon and built a business empire.

“I think it’s going to be a great time, and it’s really going to be a celebration of the whole thing, you know, because a few days after that it’s coming to an end. The campaign; I will not campaign again. I’m going to campaign to make America great,” Trump said of the upcoming rally at Madison Square Garden during a local radio interview with Cats. & Cosby on Thursday.

During his civil fraud trial, Trump decided to voluntarily attend his hearings, splitting time between the courtroom and the campaign trail while using his prosecutions to rally his supporters around what he believed was a weaponization of the government, allegations that prosecutors have vehemently denied.

He made several smaller campaign stops during his seven-week criminal trial earlier this year, holding a rally in the Bronx and on Long Island in an effort to woo Hispanic and black voters, who make up the majority of the area’s population. to bring justice.

During his travels through the deep-blue Democratic state, the former president has long joked that he could topple New York, a state that Democrats have won in the last nine elections.

In an arena format that symbolizes confidence and celebrity status, Trump’s performance will serve as his closing argument. Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, makes hers at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, where Trump spoke on January 6, 2021, prior to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Reminiscent of the past nine years of campaigning for the highest office in the land, the former president has described the event as a “celebration of the whole.”

“Well, it’s New York, but it’s also kind of the end of my campaign. If you think, I mean, I’ve done it for nine years now, we’ve had two great elections. One was better than the election.” others,” Trump said.

On Sunday, Trump will be joined by several surrogates who have appeared with him on the campaign trail — including North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik will also be in attendance, as will several family members and donors.

Trump’s close friend and donor Steve Witkoff, who was golfing with Trump last month during the second attempt on his life in West Palm Beach, will also speak at the meeting.

Trump’s rally in New York, while not a battleground state, will provide an opportunity to capture a large national audience given the area’s media market and location.

It’s a strategy campaign officials deployed in the latter part of Trump’s campaign, seeing benefits in visiting locations outside battleground states to help emphasize a message.

On Friday, for example, Trump visited Texas to highlight immigration, setting up a split-screen campaign for Harris to gather in Houston later in the day for an event focused on abortion rights.