On Sunday night, Puerto Ricans rallied in San Juan in an anti-Trump and anti-corruption rally. It is in response to disparaging comments made by a comedian at a Trump campaign stop in New York City. The demonstration is by far the largest collective action in response to Trump showing Puerto Ricans are a respected and recognized political force.
New York, N.Y. — It’s the island home to three of the world’s five bioluminescent bays and the second oldest church in the western hemisphere. It’s the island that gave the world stars such as Bad Bunny, Roberto Clemente and Lin Manuel Miranda. It’s the birthplace of the piña colada. For many, Puerto Rico is a paradise and a bastion of Caribbean culture. But if you ask Tony Hinchcliffe, one of the speakers at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, it’s a “floating island of garbage.”
Shortly following the rally and Hinchcliffe’s remarks, major Puerto Rican artists like Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin, Luis Fonsi and Jennifer Lopez respectively condemned his racist rhetoric and endorsed Kamala Harris by sharing her plan for Puerto Rico, which she had released the same day as the rally.
It’s not just major artists who’ve come out to condemn the comment. Ángel Cintrón, Chairman of the Republican Party in Puerto Rico, has said Donald Trump must apologize, adding that he will not vote for Trump unless that happens.
“If Donald Trump doesn’t apologize to us, I will not vote for him,” Cintrón said in a talk show. “Puerto Rico is always first.”
Luis Dávila Pernas, the new chairman of the Democratic Party in Puerto Rico shared his condemnation of the attack.
“I was outraged; I found it repugnant. I understood it was completely inappropriate, but it confirmed something we’ve always known: that Donald Trump thinks Puerto Ricans are trash,” Pernas told Ark Republic.
Additionally, San Juan’s archbishop, Roberto O. González Nieves, urged the former president to personally apologize in a press release written in English.
“It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologize. It is important that you, personally, apologize for these comments. May you be blessed with wisdom,” he wrote.
Trump campaign spokesperson Daniella Alvarez has said the “joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” However, when asked for an apology, Donald Trump has responded exclusively in ways that do not satisfy the simple request.
Although islanders do not get to vote in presidential elections, 2024 marks the first time a presidential preference ballot is available to islanders. While the vote won’t affect the outcome of the presidential election, it will be a proper gauge for how voters in the island would vote in the race.
But, islanders living in New York can offer their voice in a vote. New York City is home to over a million Puerto Ricans and Hinchcliffe still chose to say that in Madison Square Garden.
Trump’s recorded contention with the island
“I’ve done more for Puerto Rico than any president that’s ever been president,” Trump said in a Fox News interview on October 29 following the maelstrom of criticism after the rally.
“I don’t know anything about the comedian. I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him,” he blurted from a garbage truck in an event on October 30.
Meanwhile, his running mate, J.D. Vance declared that “We’re not going to restore the greatness of American civilization if we get offended at every little thing,” in a rally on October 28.
The next day, as a response to a comment at a campaign call from President Biden saying “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Vance said that “Kamala Harris and Joe Biden ought to be ashamed of themselves.”
Crucially, there are large Boricua populations across key swing states, with the must-win state of Pennsylvania sporting the largest at 486,115, representing 3.7% of the state’s population. With the exception of Arizona and Michigan, Puerto Ricans represent around 1% of the population in the remaining swing states for this election. When margins are as historically close as they’ve been, that population could be the deciding factor in who wins the state, and even the election.
“You have Puerto Ricans that sometimes vote Democrat and sometimes vote Republican, and hearing a presidential candidate call us trash certainly tips the scales in favor of Harris,” explained Pernas.
Since the Madison Square Garden (MSG) rally, there have been those who have shifted in their support. Like Puerto Rican rapper Nicky Jam who originally endorsed Trump in a Las Vegas rally on September 14—a rally where Trump introduced him by saying, “she’s hot,” only to realize Jam is male as the singer walked on stage. The former president course-corrected as he saw that, saying “Oh look. I’m glad he came up.”
However, in lieu of the recent MSG campaign stump, Jam withdrew his endorsement saying, “I revoke any support for Donald Trump…Puerto Rico is to be respected.”
The campaign did vet Hinchcliffe’s inflammatory set beforehand, flagging a joke calling Kamala Harris an offensive remark as inappropriate. However, the alleged comedian was not just allowed to make the racist insult against Puerto Rico, but also to assert that Latin-Americans “love making babies,” spewing “There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country.” Additionally, he made ‘jokes’ with derogatory remarks and harmful stereotypes about Black people, Palestinians, Jewish people and transgender people in his set.
In response to the enormous backlash, Hinchcliffe tweeted that “These people have no sense of humor. … I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone…watch the whole set,” claiming that the joke was taken out of context. It should be noted he did not make fun of white people nor men.
His tweet was quoting a post from the Kamala HQ account with a clip of Tim Walz and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez reacting to his comment.
Only Trump’s campaign expresses doubt that Hinchcliffe’s comment on Puerto Rico was racist. Moreover, the Republican party is apprehensive to officially acknowledge that the remarks failed at being a joke that has been regarded as a direct attack on an ethnic group and a key voter group.
If anything, the context to the recent racialized hit should be considered. Jokes at the island’s expense harken back to the time where Trump chose to withhold aid from U.S. citizens. When Trump served as president, he denied congressionally approved, life saving aid to Puerto Rico after the series of hurricanes in 2017 debilitated the island. Strategically, this was something he did not do to Texas and Florida—the states that voted for him and suffered from the same natural disasters.
Looking at his 13 years of campaigning, Trump carries a long line of offensive rhetoric and racist actions. In June, he talked about “black jobs” at the presidential debate. By the end of July, he was saying Kamala Harris had “turned Black” in a panel of Black journalists. As president, he called neo-nazi protestors “very fine people.”
In his run against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections, he spread the Obama birther conspiracy, allegedly even when president.
In 1989, he bought full-page ads after the Central Park Five were falsely accused of assault reading “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” In his debate with Kamala Harris, Trump falsely claimed that they had pled guilty and killed a person.
In 1973, before he was even 30 years old, he and his father were sued for denying housing to Black tenants by the Justice department. The lawsuit ended with the former president and his father settling and acknowledging they had violated the Fair Housing Act.
The most important context here is that Hinchcliffe’s set was at a campaign event for someone who’s been openly racist for his entire career.
“Our way of solidarizing ourselves when someone needs help, independent of political differences – pro-statehood, pro-independence, liberal, conservative – when we unite as a community it’s a beautiful thing and there is more that unites us than divides us,” said Perna.
