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    • Trump plays cleanup in Allentown as Puerto Rican voters wave away
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    Trump plays cleanup in Allentown as Puerto Rican voters wave away

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    Victor Martinez’s radio stations were flooded with calls. Yesenia Westerband’s food truck customers were enthusiastic about it. Guillermo Lopez’s Facebook feed was full of comments.

    “Como Puertorriqueño te diré que eso no manera de disculprase!!!” one listener commented on Martinez’s show. “As a Puerto Rican, no apology is enough.”

    As Donald Trump descended on Allentown, Pennsylvania, for a rally on Tuesday, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments at the former president’s Madison Square Guardian event on Sunday calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash” ripped through the sizable Puerto Rican population of the community.

    Martinez, Westerband and Lopez are all of Puerto Rican descent and said Hinchcliffe’s comments were the talk of the predominantly Hispanic city, inflaming the community and likely mobilizing voices.

    “It’s everywhere now, what happened at Madison Square Garden,” said Westerband, who moved from Puerto Rico to the Lehigh Valley at age 6 and lived on the island again after high school before returning to Pennsylvania.

    For many Puerto Ricans, the “garbage” comments were a surprise in October that shocked and concerned them on the eve of a major election in which their votes could be decisive, said Martinez, who owns a chain of five Pennsylvania-based radio stations in Allentown. .

    More: 2024 election live updates: Harris delivers ‘closing argument’ in DC; Trump holds PA meeting

    Pennsylvania is the most contentious, most consequential swing state and home to the fourth largest Puerto Rican population in the country. With 19 Electoral College votes up for grabs, the state has nearly 500,000 Puerto Ricans, according to Census data. President Joe Biden won the state in 2020 by just 80,555 votes.

    “Boricuas a votar Pennsylvania Wisconsin,” commented one listener on the show’s YouTube channel. “Boricuas, let’s vote in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, good luck to that old convict who thinks he’s God.”

    Senator Gustavo Rivera, born and raised in Puerto Rico and now representing the Bronx, believes Hinchcliffe’s comments will have negative consequences for the Trump campaign.

    He noted that the comments have spread like wildfire throughout the Puerto Rican community, from New York to Florida to Pennsylvania. He says he has received numerous text and Facebook messages from Boricuas across the country.

    “This is an important turning point,” he said. “It definitely wakes up a lot of people. I hope this is the energy we use in the last few days.”

    Register to vote: Text with USA TODAY’s elections team.

    Trump campaigns are trying to project calm as the fallout mounts

    The Trump campaign rejected Hinchcliffe’s comments, saying they do not reflect the former president’s views.

    Trump told ABC News that he did not know the comedian and had not heard his comments, and simply reiterated that he had not heard it when asked to share his thoughts on the Puerto Rico joke.

    Trump did not address the controversy during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on Tuesday. He called the rally at Madison Square Garden, where speakers made racist, misogynistic and other controversial comments, a “love fest.”

    “No president has done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” Trump said at a forum in Pennsylvania later in the day, without directly mentioning Hinchcliffe’s comments.

    Prominent Hispanic Republicans joined the former president at his rally in Allentown on Tuesday. He asked shadow U.S. Senator Zoraida Buxó of Puerto Rico to join him on stage.

    “The people of Puerto Rico trust you,” said Buxó, who is part of Puerto Rico’s shadow delegation that advocates statehood but has no vote, adding: “We need this man back in the White House. ”

    Trump declared that “no one loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do” and again claimed that he has done more for the island than any other president. He mentioned the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico in 2017 during his presidency, saying he had sent a hospital ship to the island.

    Trump’s response after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico was heavily criticized.

    An inspector general’s report found that tensions within the Republican government led to delays in the disbursement of funds approved by Congress. The mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital and others condemned the former president for throwing paper towels into crowds when he visited the island.

    A Republican adviser close to the campaign said Trump’s team is exuding calm amid the fallout from the Madison Square Garden rally, directing allies to point to Trump adviser Danielle Alvarez’s statement saying : “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign. ”

    “I really think they wish it had never happened… it just takes air time and oxygen,” the consultant said, adding: “in no world was this all that useful.” However, the person wondered if it would have much impact and said most people have already made up their minds.

    Another GOP consultant with close ties to part of Trump’s campaign team said, “I don’t think they’re that concerned, it was one event and one news cycle.”

    But in a close election where a few thousand votes could make a difference, the adviser said, “it’s at the very least an unnecessary headache that could potentially hurt them at the ballot box at a time when they can least afford it .”

    ‘Island of garbage’ comments are on the minds of decisive voters

    Westerband is very proud of her Puerto Rican roots and said it was painful to hear the island where she was born called “garbage.”

    Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and those born there are U.S. citizens, but it often feels like the island is “treated like an extra piece that is not part” of the country, Westerband said.

    The food truck owner doesn’t consider himself very political and doesn’t make a decision until it’s time to vote. As a Democrat, she voted for Biden in 2020, but she also supported Republicans.

    “I’m not deciding which way I’m going to go yet, I’m not going to say which way I’m going to vote yet,” she said.

    However, the “garbage” comments are certainly on her mind, and in the minds of many people she knows, including customers of her two food trucks that sell traditional Puerto Rican dishes.

    “I know there are a lot of changes happening in minds and hearts,” she said.

    Republican consultant Mike Madrid said there are about 33,500 Puerto Rican voters in Allentown alone.

    “The racist comments at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden could cost him the election,” said Madrid, author of “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy.”

    Madrid added: “Even if it moves Pennsylvania only marginally, it’s game over — and it’s likely to move Latinos and Republicans there.”

    Martinez, the radio station owner, is doing a morning political segment that usually lasts 20 to 30 minutes but lasted over an hour Monday because so many people wanted to talk about Hinchcliffe’s comments.

    Martinez, a Democrat, is endorsing Kamala Harris and was even featured in one of her campaign ads. His decision was already made. However, many of his listeners who responded to the “nonsense” comments were people who were not politically active and are now on the sidelines.

    “A lot of the responses we received and the calls we received were people who didn’t care, who weren’t involved,” Martinez said. “They had enough of all this talk about politics, and now all of a sudden their pride is hurt, and now they’re going to vote.”

    Martinez’s stations in Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading, Harrisburg, Lancaster and York reach about 250,000 Latinos, he said, most of them of Puerto Rican descent.

    Guillermo Lopez was born in Bethlehem, near Allentown, after his father was recruited from Puerto Rico to work in the Bethlehem steel mill. Lopez followed his father to the factory and worked there for 27 years.

    A former labor leader, he has been involved in Democratic politics for decades and is also a leading figure in the region’s Hispanic community, where he serves as vice chairman of The Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley.

    Lopez has opposed Trump since the former president descended Trump Tower’s golden escalator in 2015 to declare his first campaign.

    “As a Latino, as a Puerto Rican, it’s just been despicable this whole time,” Lopez said of Trump’s tenure at the pinnacle of American politics. “He started with a dog whistle… but now they have a full megaphone.”

    Lopez is a vocal activist. But now, after Hinchcliffe’s comments, even people he knows who have not spoken out about politics are speaking out. He cited three different Facebook friends who posted that they weren’t going to vote but are now doing so.

    “Ever since this happened, it’s like someone gave a bat signal and they came out of the woodwork,” he said.

    Contributions: Rebecca Morin and David Jackson

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