NEW YORK Donald Trump brought his fascist campaign for presidency to the heart of midtown Manhattan on Sunday, taking the stage at Madison Square Garden and looking out over a crowd of his fanatically loyal Red Hats.

With nine days left until the election, the campaign stop seemed like a finale one more grand provocation meant to show that Trump could win this thing, that he could walk into enemy territory months after a would-be assassins bullet pierced his ear, garnering enough supporters in this progressive, diverse city to fill up the the worlds most famous arena.

And that he could do it even after running one of the most racist presidential campaigns in history, and even though earlier this year a jury downtown convicted him on 34 charges of illegally influencing the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn star, and even though earlier this year the New York state attorney general won a $450 million civil fraud judgment against him.

Back in 2016, when he began his rise to the White House, Trump boasted that he could stand a few blocks from here, in the middle of Fifth Avenue, and shoot somebody, and I wouldnt lose any voters, OK? Its, like, incredible. Eight years later, Trumps observation, amidst his daily barrage of lies and exaggerations, seems more true than ever. His base of white conservative supporters are not abandoning him, no matter his latest scandal, and the polls in crucial swing states are tightening.

The arena Sunday was packed to the brim with his adoring fans, with thousands more outside on the sidewalk watching the rally on a big screen or on their phones. At one point, so many were sitting on a construction fence that it collapsed and fell beneath their weight.

Kamala, youre fired! Trump said at the beginning of his speech. Get out!

That is a lot of fake news! he said a short time later to big applause, pointing at the journalists gathered in the press section of the arena.