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    • Trump faces backlash from Bad Bunny Puerto Ricans amid battle for the Latino vote
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    Trump faces backlash from Bad Bunny Puerto Ricans amid battle for the Latino vote

    Vaseline Posted on

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    Puerto Ricans, including Grammy-winning artists Bad Bunny and Ricky Martin, widely condemned Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after a comedian performing at his final campaign rally at Madison Square Garden mocked the island as a “floating island of trash.”

    The backlash comes as Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are locked in a razor-thin race — and are counting on Latino voters to get them to the White House.

    Puerto Rican voters living in the United States make up the second-largest Latino group in the country, including in key battleground states like Pennsylvania.

    Trump, who is seeing growing support among Latino men, touted splashy endorsements from Puerto Rican artists like Anuel AA and Nicky Jam, who have large followings among young Latino voters. But comments from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who goes by the stage name Kill Tony, have sparked widespread and bipartisan backlash against Trump’s presidential campaign.

    “I couldn’t believe what I heard from that Trump rally. Seeing that kind of hate on full screen not only angered me, but deepened my resolve to do everything I can to ensure he never sits in the Oval Office again,” said Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, Pennsylvania. More than half of Allentown’s residents are Latino, and many are of Puerto Rican descent. Tuerk, a Democrat of Cuban descent, is the city’s first Latino mayor.

    Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar of Florida, a native of Puerto Rico, also quickly condemned Hinchcliffe’s comments.

    “Disgusted by @TonyHinchcliffe’s racist comment calling Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of trash,’” she wrote on X. “This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values.”

    Hinchcliffe spoke just hours before the former president at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, where he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash in the ocean” and made jokes about Latinos.

    Despite the growing uproar, senior Trump adviser Danielle Alvarez issued a statement Sunday evening addressing Hinchcliffe’s role. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” she said.

    More than two-thirds of Puerto Ricans live in the United States — roughly 5.8 million, according to the Pew Research Center. Another 3.3 million Puerto Ricans live on the island, which is a U.S. territory, but residents of the island cannot vote for the president.

    Shortly after Hinchcliffe’s comments went viral, Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican global superstar, shared a video of Harris criticizing Trump’s actions against Puerto Rico when he was president. On his Instagram Story, Bad Bunny shared a post from Harris’ Instagram account outlining her agenda for the island.

    The Reggaetonero then shared an excerpt of her post several times with the sentence: “I will never forget what Donald Trump did – and what he didn’t do – when Puerto Rico needed a caring and competent leader. He left the island, tried to block aid after successive devastating hurricanes, and offered nothing but paper towels and insults.”

    His final post on his Instagram Story with the clip read: “I will never forget what Donald Trump did.” Bad Bunny has 45.6 million followers on Instagram.

    A representative for Bad Bunny said the artist supports Harris. However, the representative emphasized that Bad Bunny’s focus is on Puerto Rico. Bad Bunny has often spoken out about local politics in Puerto Rico, and recently called on residents to vote against the New Progressive Party, which has an edge in November’s gubernatorial election.

    Both Harris and Trump are competing for Latino voters, who will be crucial in determining the winner of the presidential election.

    With less than 10 days until the Nov. 5 election, Harris earlier on Sunday unveiled an “opportunity economy” agenda for Puerto Rico, which would create a task force focused on creating economic opportunity on the island and improving the electricity grid to help close the electricity supply. divide among Latino voters.

    “I really believe that we are all part of a new generation of leadership for our country that is optimistic, ambitious and, if I may say so for myself, quite impatient in knowing that we can get things done,” she said at Freddy and Tony’s Restaurant in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of Philadelphia.

    During Trump’s presidency, Puerto Rico was devastated by two consecutive hurricanes in 2017, killing more than 3,000 people and displacing thousands.

    Trump was criticized at the time for his response to the storms after he downplayed the damage they caused and an image of him throwing rolls of paper towels at island residents went viral.

    Some people of Puerto Rican descent criticized Trump for giving Hinchcliffe a platform at his rally.

    Lexie Robinson, 49, a Puerto Rican who has lived in Brooklyn for 16 years, said she believes the former president “is a racist, dangerous, self-righteous deviant.”

    “It is disgusting that Puerto Rico was called a floating island of trash,” she said. “They are literally in NYC, a city that is part of our great migration, a city that we have given so much culture to, so much love, music, food, community – so much of ourselves.”

    Robinson is voting for Harris in this election even though she disagrees with the Democratic vice president’s support for aid to Israel for its war in Gaza.

    Following widespread backlash, including from Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, Hinchcliffe said he loves Puerto Rico and has vacationed there. And that the comedian ‘made fun of everyone’ during his entire set.

    “These people have no sense of humor,” he wrote.

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