Trump Supporters Line Up Early at Madison Square Garden

Outside Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan, the streets early Sunday afternoon were a sea of red, white and blue, as a line of people wound around the block. Some had been there since Saturday morning for former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign rally, scheduled for 5 p.m. today.

On the side of the Garden, a screen several stories high showed a behemoth Trump astride skyscrapers, pointing uptown, beside the words “Dream Big Again!”

Vendors did a brisk business in “Make America Great Again” ball caps. Members of a pro-Trump Jewish group threw arms around each other’s shoulders and sang a Hebrew prayer. Some of Mr. Trump’s more enthusiastic supporters predicted a red tsunami so huge that it could engulf even New York, where the former president is behind in the polls by about 15 percentage points. In New York City, he trails among likely voters by 39 percentage points.

Gregory Lamb, 27, from the Westchester County suburb of Mamaroneck, N.Y., and his father weaved through the thick crowd to get to the front of a “special guest” line. Mr. Lamb had gotten tickets through a connection in the Trump campaign after volunteering to be a poll watcher.

“Kamala said during the debate that people don’t show up to Trump’s rallies, and that people are always bored and want to leave,” Mr. Lamb said. “I wanted to show her that we show up — and look how many people are around. We’re here and we’re not going anywhere.”

Though registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in Manhattan by about 10 to 1, there did not seem to be a significant number of counterprotesters a few hours before the rally was set to begin. Near the corner of 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue, about four people waved anti-Trump flags, including one that said: “Don the felon.”