Ahead of Donald Trump’s appearance Tuesday in the heavily Latino city of Allentown, Pennsylvania, a comedian’s racist joke about Puerto Ricans at the former president’s rally at Madison Square Garden received new backlash.

In an editorial endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Puerto Rico’s largest national newspaper, El Nuevo Día, expressed anguished outrage over the comment made at Sunday’s rally in New York.

“Today, all of us who love this beautiful Garden of America and the world are aching inside and our hearts are clenched with anger and pain,” the editorial said.

“For years, Trump has been waging a discourse of contempt and disinformation against the island, which shows an obsession and contempt for a people who do not have the power of the right to vote to defend themselves, as the three million American citizens living in Puerto Rico do not can vote. in the presidential elections,” the editorial said. “However, the remaining five million people living in the United States, whom they also labeled as trash, can vote.”

One of those five million Puerto Rican voters is Allentown resident Efraín Dávila.

He told NBC News that he believes Trump is “making it happen,” referring to the jokes targeting his home country. Dávila, an independent voter who previously voted Republican, said he no longer supports that party because it is “all about Trumpism and MAGA.”

Adding to the firestorm over the comments, Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny posted a breathtaking 8-minute video on Tuesday narrated by Oscar-winning Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro. The video showcases with stunning cinematography how Puerto Rican people throughout history have endured trials, tribulations and overcome the odds to excel as world-renowned artists, activists, athletes and political activists. Bad Bunny captioned the poignant and powerful video “garbage” on his Instagram.

On Tuesday afternoon, Trump said at a business roundtable in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, that no president had done more for Puerto Rico than after a participant told him that Puerto Rico loved him and stood behind him. He made no mention of the joke.

Hinchcliffe made his racist jokes in an election cycle when Republicans have said they are approaching Latinos as Americans. Earlier this year, Trump’s campaign rebranded Latinos for Trump, the Hispanic outreach group, as Latino Americans for Trump.

That message has helped Trump and Republicans appeal to Latinos on the economy, but racial and cultural identity remains a button that can be pushed, said Democratic pollster Carlos Odio, co-founder of the research firm EquisLabs.

Republicans say, “You really belong to our party. Ignore all the nasty rhetoric because we are at the point where you are on the economy,” Odio said. “It is moments like these that reinforce the extent to which many Hispanics, including in this case Puerto Ricans, feel that Republicans will ultimately not pay attention to them.”

Rafaela Gomez of Pennsylvania attended the rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Gomez, who is of Dominican descent, was back in her hometown of Allentown on Tuesday. She said she still supports Trump.

“Trump had nothing to do with that,” Gomez said.

Gomez, who is married to a Puerto Rican man who also supports Trump, said that while she “disagreed with calling the Puerto Rican people trash,” she believes the joke was intended to expose how the current “ Puerto Rico’s government has failed.”

Hinchcliffe did not refer to the Biden administration or any other administration when talking about Puerto Rico.

A Hispanic Federation/Latino Victory survey of Latinos in battleground states shows Harris with 57% of the Hispanic vote in Pennsylvania, compared to 27% for Trump and 11% undecided. The Oct. 2-10 poll of 1,900 Latino registered voters in eight battleground states had an overall margin of error of 2.3%.

When Trump announced his 2016 presidential bid by trashing people from Mexico — calling them rapists and saying they brought crime and drugs — some voters dismissed it as a reference only to immigrants. He lost some GOP Latino supporters with that comment and more he made at a follow-up rally in Arizona, but others stayed and he has since gained new Latino support.

But the comedian at his rally attacked Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens at birth and not immigrants, said Mike Madrid, a Republican consultant who opposes Trump.

Harris is already doing better with Latinos and Republican defectors, Madrid said. The commenters’ response only needs to shift a small portion of their votes, 1% to 2%, in its favor and “that’s the entire state,” Madrid said.

The outrage from Puerto Rican celebrities like Bad Bunny, JLo, Marc Anthony and Geraldo Rivera, who have expressed their support for Harris or their disdain for Trump and the comedian’s jokes on social media, could have such an impact, he said .

Madrid added that it’s harder to distance himself from the comedian’s racist jokes because they didn’t come from Trump.

Trump “so numbed us to his own racist vitriol that if it had been Donald Trump (making the jokes) it would have disappeared an hour after it happened,” Madrid said. “When it is other voices carrying out racist attacks on stage, our sense of shock and shame resurfaces.”

Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, a nonpartisan, Latino-focused nonprofit, called the dumpster joke “a real punch to the heart — a stark reminder of how the candidate has felt about our community since Hurricane Maria.” ”

The group does not make statements of support, but was already planning to reach 3 million people with its voting campaign.

“Now we’re making sure Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania understand our position and our response to this,” said Miranda, whose grandmother died in the wake of Hurricane Maria while the island was without electricity. “I feel a responsibility as a Puerto Rican to send our reaction and response to this to all the people in our network.”

While the general consensus among the Puerto Ricans interviewed is a condemnation of the racist joke, the discrepancy lies mainly in whether they think Trump is responsible for the comments or not.

Gardner Mojica, Gomez’s husband and also a Trump supporter, believes that “Trump has nothing to do with it,” saying his candidate “does not support racism and he would not call Puerto Rico an island of trash.”

After Trump’s rally in Allentown, award-winning “Hamilton” creator Lin Manuel-Miranda planned a celebration of Puerto Rican culture in Philadelphia on Wednesday to counter the island’s portrayal as trash, Miranda said.

Nicole Acevedo reported from New York, Suzanne Gamboa from San Antonio and George Solis from Allentown.