ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Former President Donald Trump worked Tuesday to tamp down anger over a comedian’s insulting jokes about Latinos and Puerto Rico at his rally in Madison Square Garden, campaigning in a majority-Latino city as the uproar threatens to erode gains he has made with Latino voters.
Trump made no mention of the comedian’s remarks in his 75-minute address, citing polls that show him performing well among Latino voters and voicing solidarity with Puerto Rico.
“I will deliver the best future for Puerto Ricans and for Hispanic Americans,” Trump said.
Late in his appearance, Trump called to the lectern Puerto Rico’s Republican shadow senator, who praised him and vouched for his commitment to the U.S. territory days after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe likened Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage” as part of a string of jokes at Trump’s recent event in New York City.
“The people of Puerto Rico trust you and we have high hopes,” said Zoraida Buxo. “We need this man back in the White House. We we need this man to be our commander-in-chief. He will make us feel safe. And he will protect us.”
Before Trump arrived on stage, some of the speakers also took pains to celebrate Puerto Rico.
Tim Ramos, a former mayoral candidate in Allentown, introduced himself to the crowd as “a Puerto Rican man” who wanted to express his “love of the island and the people of Puerto Rico.”
“We have a proud heritage, a heritage that has seen our men fight in every war this nation has ever waged,” he said. “We are a beautiful people from a beautiful island.”
Buxo, who also spoke before Trump’s arrival, described Puerto Rico as a “beautiful island” with a “deep, deep, love of country.”
“Blessed by God, that is home,” she added “That is Puerto Rico.”
Another speaker, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., delivered remarks in both Spanish and English. Rubio had earlier criticized Hinchcliffe’s comment on the social media site X, though on Tuesday he did not mention the episode.
The pro-Puerto Rico message follows two days of growing outrage over the comedian’s appearance at a Trump rally on Sunday in the famed arena in Manhattan.
Amid a tight race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the comment disparaged a slice of the electorate that could potentially tip a close election. In Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state, the Puerto Rican population amounts to nearly 500,000 people, according to census estimates. People of Puerto Rican descent comprise the biggest share of Latino eligible voters in Pennsylvania.
Matt Tuerk, the Democratic mayor of Allentown, said in an interview that his constituents are “furious.”
“People are going to turn that anger into voting. That’s how people will react. We don’t get mad, we get even.”
Even before the Madison Square Garden rally ended, condemnation poured in. Elected officials from both parties, pop culture figures, entertainers and ordinary voters recoiled at the remark. The Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny endorsed Harris and put out a video that was an homage to the island, giving it an ironic caption: “Garbage.”
Hinchcliffe’s comment came at a particularly inopportune for the Trump campaign. Recent polls from Reuters/Ipsos, NBC News/CNBC/Telemundo and more show that Trump has wiped out the advantage among Hispanic men that President Joe Biden and other Democratic candidates enjoyed in 2020 and other recent elections.
Rep. Susan Wild, a Democrat who represents the Allentown area, told reporters Tuesday that in her district, “We have 70,000 Puerto Ricans and a large number of Hispanics and Latinos who are not Puerto Rican, and the outrage has been palpable.”
“I am hearing more on this than I’ve heard on almost any other issue this entire campaign season.”
Mindful of the fallout, the Trump campaign organized a rally at a hockey rink in Allentown that sent an affirming message about the island.
Trump, though, has yet to denounce the insult personally. His campaign has put out a statement: “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Before his appearance in Allentown, Trump told ABC News that the event at Madison Square Garden was a “lovefest.” He said he didn’t know Hinchcliffe and hadn’t seen the comment.
Trump has rarely suffered lasting political damage when he or one of his allies has said something insulting or inflammatory. There’s normally an intense, but short-lived focus on what was said before the attention shifts to the next provocation.
Democrats contend the Puerto Rico slur may be different, even if Trump didn’t say it himself. The comment came from an invited speaker standing before a lectern with the Trump-Vance campaign logo.
“It was an awful, vile comment to make at a rally that was sponsored by a presidential campaign who should be held accountable,” Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat who is in a tight race for reelection, told reporters Tuesday at a campaign stop in Allentown.
In the hours before Trump spoke, protesters gathered outside the arena. One of the demonstrators, Enid Santiago, 46, told NBC News that the comment has galvanized apathetic voters who might have been inclined to sit out the race.
Santiago, who was born in Puerto Rico and who now lives in Allentown, said that people who were “kind of exhausted with politics and were just sitting out there are now pissed off.”
Tairy Pagan, 41, who was also born in Puerto Rico and lives in Allentown, stood outside the arena holding a Harris campaign sign. For her, the comedian’s disparagement of Puerto Rico evoked Trump’s handling of Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island during the first year of his presidency. In a visit to Puerto Rico after the storm Trump tossed rolls of paper towels to residents of the stricken island.
“We suffered a lot from Hurricane Maria,” Pagan said. “He was our president, and he just threw paper towels at us. We’re people of dignity.”
“He needs to get to know us personally,” she said.
