Trump jokes on Puerto Ricans, move past controversy
New York, (Oct 29, 2024) — Former President Donald Trump sought to move past the controversy unleashed by a “joke” about Puerto Rico told at his Madison Square Garden rally, describing the event as “an absolute love fest” on Tuesday while criticizing his Democrat opponent over border enforcement, crime and the economy.
The fallout from the Sunday rally in New York has taken center stage with one week to go until voting closes in a race where polls show Trump and Vice President Harris locked in a razor-thin race in seven key swing states that could decide the contest — several of which have sizable Latino populations.
Speaking at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Trump boasted about his support among Latino voters, saying, “Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do.”
“I’ve done more for Puerto Rico than any president by far, nobody close,” Trump said. “I will deliver the best future for Puerto Ricans and for Hispanic Americans. Kamala will deliver you poverty and crime,” he added.
His remarks followed attempts by campaign officials on Monday to play clean up after a comedian warming up the crowd at his New York rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” — drawing outrage from Boricuas far and wide, and boosting support for Harris’ message.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement. Trump himself, however, did not comment on the remarks.
While several Republican lawmakers also distanced themselves from the comments, Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, dismissed the controversy, urging Americans “to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America — I’m so over it.”
Despite Republican efforts to move past the controversy, backlash has continued to build. Puerto Rican celebrities condemned the remarks, with megastar Bad Bunny posting a video Tuesday to his more than 45 million Instagram followers highlighting cultural contributions by Puerto Ricans throughout history. He titled the video “garbage,” a nod to the comments at MSG.
Separately, the Harris campaign announced that Jennifer Lopez would speak at a rally with the vice president in Las Vegas on Thursday.
The island’s Republican Party chairman has also threatened to withhold support from Trump unless he issued an apology for the remark, while the archbishop of San Juan posted an open letter to Trump saying he personally needed to apologize, not his campaign.
Puerto Ricans living on the island don’t get to vote in the presidential election. But those living on the mainland do — and in Pennsylvania, a pivotal state in this year’s race, they wield significant clout.
According to UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute, about 580,000 Latinos in Pennsylvania can vote in this election and most of them are Puerto Rican.
Given the potential stakes, the Trump campaign moved to feature several Puerto Rican speakers during his rally in Allentown.
“I am standing here as a proud Puerto Rican,” Roberto Albino, director of Hispanic engagement at the Pennsylvania Family Institute, said to cheers. Before leading the arena in a prayer he called out to his “fellow Puerto Rican brothers and sisters” in Spanish.
“We need leadership, let us not forget what we need,” he told the crowd.
The first speaker to address the crowd was Tim Ramos, who welcomed Latinos in the crowd.
Trump also falsely suggested that countries around the world were sending criminals to the United States in order to lower their own crime rates. Border crossings from the Southern border with Mexico are at levels close to those as when Trump left office in 2021.
Trump also blamed Harris for an increase in violent crime, which is down, according to FBI data. He also claimed credit for the recent stock market spike, though the economy has rebounded during the Biden years from the pandemic downturn more rapidly than most other countries around the world.
