Vinny Guadagnino is not sorry he attended Donald Trump’s hate-filled rally over the weekend.
As Perezcious readers know, the presidential candidate/convicted felon held a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. The same one in which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe spewed racist remarks about Puerto Rico, the same one a speaker referred to as a “Nazi rally,” the same one where one of Trump’s top advisers directly quoted Hitler, and more. Yeah, that one. And you know who watched all of it go down from the audience? Vinny. He was in the FRONT ROW!
“Jersey Shore” Vinny Guadagnino and his family are in the front row of Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, per a source at the venue. pic.twitter.com/d83v6OuVWt
— Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) October 27, 2024
The reality star got called out for it by disappointed Jersey Shore fans!
Now, he’s defending his appearance at the rally. However, it’s not to apologize. He’s defending himself instead, saying he’s “Dark MAGA” so it’s OK. Uh… huh… Vinny explained on his Something Went Wrong podcast Tuesday:
“Today is an interesting day because last night I attended the ‘pro-Israel Nazi’ rally. I was getting confused. There was the Jewish flag, and then on the other side, there [were] swastikas. It was a little bit of an oxymoron you know what I mean? I attended the Trump rally in MSG, Madison Square Garden. It was pretty cool.”
We would say it was the complete opposite of “cool”… but OK. He continued:
“There [were] a lot of great speakers there. Obviously, you guys know what it was, and yeah I guess some people are shocked that I was there. Some people are not shocked that I was there. I didn’t think it was kind of going to globally make so much noise. I thought that it would just kind of be a thing that people are like, ‘Oh that’s whatever.’ I think that people who hate him so much, they cling on to whatever they can to hate him and to go viral for hating him and I was that viral thing of the moment.”
The MTV personality pointed out there are “not a lot” of celebrities who attend Trump rallies, but he wanted to go to see the “lineup of these amazing people.” “Amazing” is not the word we use… “Disgusting” and “racist” and “wannabe fascist” are just some of the words that first come to mind instead.
In Vinny’s mind though, whether people “like it or not,” he feels the event had a “historic lineup” of speakers, specifically naming Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, Dana White, and Tucker Carlson. Seriously? Did this man not hear about the horrifying whale story involving RFK Jr.? Or Elon Musk’s awful transphobic comments about his own daughter recently? Anything? Again, these are who he considers “amazing people”?
Related: Kim Kardashian DELETES Saint’s YouTube After He Shares Anti-Kamala Harris Videos!
Vinny went on to say he was just “a regular guy” there, and although he is on a reality show, he is “not a Hollywood guy.” He added:
“People are allowed to have political beliefs and believe in different things. It doesn’t mean that you should hate them. It doesn’t mean anything it’s just allowed. It’s just what makes the world go around is disagreements and stuff like that.”
This is what’s called the paradox of tolerance. If someone’s political beliefs include racism, homophobia, misogyny, transphobia, etc… Are we being intolerant by not tolerating them? Should we agree to disagree? (The answer is no. It’s not a trick question. Sigh.)
Anyway, Vinny went into more detail about his political leanings. While he’s voting Republican now, he says he didn’t always. The Dancing With the Stars alum said he grew up Democrat, studied political science in college, and was not “brainwashed into being a Republican.” Hmm. He even voted for former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2016. In fact, he revealed this is the first time he is voting Republican. Why the sudden switch? Vinny is “scared of World War III,” explaining:
“I think over the last four years, there has been crazy escalation in the world and we’re f**king with nuclear weapons, bro. The Middle East is going f**king crazy. Every time we see missiles going in all different directions, it’s f**king terrifying. Russia and Ukraine are fighting, we forgot about terrifying that one was there’s another one that broke out. North Korea’s getting involved now. China’s f**king facing off with Taiwan. This is crazy, and this did not happen when Trump was president for four years. Yeah, of course, there [were] conflicts here and there or whatever. I’m not going to say, ‘No wars at all! But on that factor alone … that’s my No. 1 policy.”
This is your No. 1 thing, yet you chose the candidate who incited violence leading to the Capital riots. The same who even encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put an end to the Palestinians. The one who constantly praises Putin and Kim Jong-Un and all the aggressors? Really??
Just because Vinny is a Trump supporter these days, he repeatedly insisted he is not the “culty” kind:
“I live in rational thought; people talking about policies, but respectfully disagreeing. That’s the world I live in, but it still might end up falling on the right.”
He stressed once again he is “not joining a religious cult,” but does understand there are very extreme supporters of Trump out there. And he saw “a lot of people like that” at the rally, including someone who was arrested for participating in the January 6 insurrection. Yet he reiterated he is “not part of a religious cult” before adding:
“I don’t vote for as much as the person because the person’s not God — not Kamala or Trump — they’re not God. They just represent a group of policies that you’re either in favor of or you’re not. And you only get two choices.”
And get this. Vinny noted Trump was not his “first choice.” Instead, he wanted one of the others like Gabbard, RFK Jr., and Ramaswamy. That said, he’s still voting for Trump:
“I’m voting for the people who are endorsing Trump as much as I am voting for Trump.”
And there’s more. As we mentioned, Vinny was adamant he was not in the “culty” part of the Trump supporters. What he calls himself is a “Dark MAGA,” just like Elon:
“I’m not a MAGA guy. I’m a Dark MAGA. Dark MAGA is different. Dark MAGA is a little bit of a subset of MAGA. It’s a little more nerdy. It’s less religious, less culty. It’s more of just like, ‘I think putting a 30% tariff on China is going to reduce inflation by 7%.’ Regular Trump supporters aren’t saying that. They’re just like, ‘Storm the Capitol!’ Not Dark MAGA.”
Oof. They should call it DIM MAGA. Tariffs are not taxes to be paid by other countries, they’re taxes on US businesses — who pass the price hikes down to consumers. Experts say they’re going to make everything cost more — raising the cost of living by around $4,000 AT LEAST for most families.
Vinny then stressed once more that he believes Dark MAGA is about “rational thought, not a cultish religious, angry, outrageous political thing.” It’s not a good sign if you have to keep saying over and over you’re not in a cult… Just saying.
Last but not least in this wild rollercoaster of a podcast episode from Vinny, he addressed Tony Hinchcliffe’s vile “joke” onstage at Madison Square Garden. You know, when he said:
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there is literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico?”
So awful. His racist comment angered and hurt many Puerto Ricans, even causing many well-known people in the music industry to publicly endorse Kamala Harris — and not Trump. What does Vinny have to say about the disgusting display at his candidate’s rally? He noted his “spicy Latinas are angry today,” adding:
“So I’m a comic. I do comedy every night so I’m never gonna clutch my pearls at a joke. I’m more upset at the Trump campaign for even putting an insult comic up at Madison Square Garden in front of a holy Southern conservative crowd at 1:00 p.m. on the Lord’s Day, on a Sunday. I don’t even see the benefit [of] it. Tony’s going to do what Tony does. If this was in the context of Kill Tony, the set would have been a thousand times worse, and nobody would have batted an eye, but taking out Tony, the insult comic, and then putting him at the top, it was a weird placement. I was there, it was nowhere even near the other speakers and s**t.”
Vinny confirmed what we could see from the video — some people in the room laughed, others didn’t:
“It was more of just like, ‘What is going on?’ ‘Is this okay?’”
No, it was not OK. But that was the point. He was picked because he’d say that kind of racist stuff, and his material was approved by the campaign. These “jokes” are in line with the stuff Trump has always said about Latinos.
Despite how racist the remark was, he didn’t expect a huge reaction from the public:
“I didn’t know it was going to be this whole complete eruption into the whole world to where that’s all they’re talking about. All they’re talking about is that, and seeing me!”
We were a little surprised, too. But it seems a lot of folks finally realized the white supremacist platform didn’t have room for THEM.
As far as why everyone was talking about Vin? What can we say? You disappointed and angered a lot of fans, many of whom never expected to see you attending a rally for Trump. Wrapping up the conversation, Vinny said:
“You have the right to vote for whoever you vote for, and I’m not going to attack anybody who votes the other way. I’m not going to throw eggs at them, and I’m not going to say you’re a f**king warmonger or criminal because you’re on the side of Dick Cheney. It’s just like, ‘You do you. Imma do me.’”
“On the side of Dick Cheney.” Ugh. Watch the podcast episode (below):
Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via LiveNOW from FOX/Vinny Guadagnino/YouTube]