Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, one of nearly 30 speakers to warm up the stage before Donald Trump's election rally in New York on Sunday, went hard on Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans.
There is literally a floating island of trash in the middle of the ocean now. I think it's called Puerto Rico, said Hinchcliffe, among other things.
The Trump campaign quickly went out and claimed that the joke did not reflect the Republican presidential candidate's views, but the damage was already done. A number of American celebrities with Puerto Rican origins have expressed renewed support for the Democrats' Kamala Harris after the outburst, including artists Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Luis Fonsi, and Ricky Martin.
Important Voices
Puerto Rico in the Caribbean belongs to the USA but functions as a self-governing territory. Around six million Puerto Ricans live on the US mainland and are therefore eligible to vote in the election.
The swing state of Pennsylvania, one of the states where the election is practically decided, has the third largest Puerto Rican diaspora in the USA with around 580,000 potential voters.
People from Puerto Rico are citizens. They pay taxes and serve in the army at a higher rate than almost anyone else, says Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz in a video clip published on X after the Trump rally in New York.
Harris Promises Investments
On the same day as Trump's event in Madison Square Garden, Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Pennsylvania, where she promised investments in the island's economy and struggling power grid.
In total, around 36 million Latin Americans in the USA are eligible to vote in the election on November 5. In several swing states, they are described as an important minority that can decide the election.
Trump and his campaign have previously received criticism for their hateful rhetoric towards Latin Americans in the USA – not least towards Haitians, whom Trump and his running mate JD Vance have claimed eat people's pets.
