The Trump rally in Madison Square Garden on Sunday was my last chance to see the man in action before the election. So even though the organizers had rejected my request for a media pass (what, The Nation?), my husband and I decided to go anyway. Unfortunately, when my husband and I got to the Penn Station subway station, the place was packed, and the police, of whom there were many, had blocked off every exit but one. It took us ages to get out of there. Once outside, we had no idea where to go. For a while we stood in a long line that turned out to be reserved for VIPs. “How did you get to be a VIP?” I asked several people, who seemed to have no idea. “My friend arranged it,” said one woman with a shrug. We walked to 34th and 6th and joined the regular-people line. It was even longer. So much for the attempt by some mischievous Dems to sabotage the event by signing up and not going.

The first thing I noticed was how many Black and brown people were there—lots of Hispanics, more than a sprinkling of Black people and Asians. Of course there were plenty of white people, including elegant Eastern European women and their beefy husbands, young Orthodox Jewish men (where were the women?), and loud young men who burst out regularly with shouts of “USA! USA!” But the picture you may have of Trump rallies as all-white fiestas did not hold true.