NEW York, United States (AFP) — Tourists wheeling luggage met head-on with Donald Trump supporters excited to see their idol at Madison Square Garden — and the result was New York’s sidewalks brought to a standstill.

The Empire State Building and the Naked Cowboy guitarist street performer – both staples of the Manhattan cityscape -–provided a backdrop for a Trump rally held just days before the election.

Eric Milland, 65, from suburban Yonkers said the Republican candidate and former president deserved a warm welcome despite the city being deeply Democratic.

“It’s great to see him in New York,” said the retiree carrying a cane, who had changed the date on his camouflage Trump hat from 2020 to 2024 with orange pen.

“We are in big trouble, it’s a crisis. Immigration is a crisis, our emergency rooms are full,” he added, echoing Trump’s campaign message.

New York is where Trump made his name as a playboy property developer, emblazoning skyscrapers with his name and searing himself into popular culture through media appearances and stunts well before he ran for office.

On Trump’s chances of carrying true blue New York state in the presidential election, Milland said “it’d be a miracle – but miracles have happened.”

The crowded streets near the venue were not without tension on Sunday.

A woman wearing a green North Face puffer jacket screamed abuse at Trump supporters as a film crew captured the scene.

Nearby, a uniformed NYPD officer haggled with a Trump T-shirt seller, sizing up a “Trump is my savior” shirt before deciding against a purchase.

An anti-Trump demonstrator held up a banner reading “welcome to your Nazi rally,” recalling the gathering held by an American Nazi group in 1939 at “the Garden”.

Undeterred, a Trump supporter in a stylized black and white US flag hooded sweater posed smiling for a photo with his arm around a companion in front of the banner.

“I hope the terrorists kill you,” one man screamed at the vendor of signature red Trump hats and T-shirts commemorating the former president’s narrow escape from a sniper’s bullet.

Police, Secret Service agents and plain-clothes officers swarmed the area, a hive of activity that is home to a rail, subway and bus terminal as well as the 20,000-capacity Madison Square Garden arena.

“We hope people will be happy on November 6” the day after the vote, said retired university professor Salvador, 70, from Barcelona as he and his wife weaved through Trump supporters.

“We wanted to come and see, for me it’s interesting. Some people assume that we are against America – but that’s just the leftist politics in Europe,” he said before heading to the airport to return home.

Some tourists stumbled into the melee, checking map apps for how to get away as their children surveyed the scene.