Trump’s Tuesday Rally Is in Swing State Puerto Rican Stronghold

Following derogatory comments made toward Puerto Ricans at his rally over the weekend, former President Donald Trump is holding a campaign stop in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the state.
Trump will hold a rally Tuesday at the PPL Center in downtown Allentown, a majority-Latino city. The arena is located on the border of the 6th Ward, a Latino neighborhood that doubles as a major community hub for Puerto Rican culture in the Lehigh Valley region.
The rally was scheduled long before the Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, in which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
The Republican nominee responded to Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico remarks on Tuesday, according to ABC. Trump distanced himself from the comedian but did not denounce the comments made.
“I don’t know him, someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said.
Newsweek reached out to a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign for comment.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was also in Allentown on Monday to host a get-out-the-vote event.
“It’s not the smartest thing to do, to insult people — a large group of voters here in a swing state — and then go to their home asking for votes,” Norberto Dominguez, a precinct captain with the local Democratic party in Allentown, told POLITICO.
The joke, which Hinchcliffe said was taken out of context, was made during a section of his set about Latino people. “Where are my proud Latinos at tonight?” he said, before launching into a series of jokes about immigration and the Texas-Mexico border. “You guys see what I mean? It’s wide open; there’s so many of them,” he said.
“There is literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico?” Hinchcliffe said, prompting murmurs and scattered boos from the crowd.
In an email to Newsweek, Trump senior advisor Danielle Alvarez said: “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
The clip has made its rounds across social media, with prominent Puerto Rican celebrities like rapper Bad Bunny signaling their support for Vice President Kamala Harris instead.
El Nuevo Día, the main news outlet in Puerto Rico, endorsed Harris in their Tuesday issue.
“Puerto Rico has an ally in Kamala Harris,” the front page of the paper read.
Several top Republicans have also denounced Hinchcliffe’s comments. Peter Navarro, a former member of the Trump administration, as well as Republican New York Representative Mike Lawler both called out Hinchcliffe for his “inappropriate rhetoric.” Local Pennsylvania officials have also told news outlets their disgust with the comments made Sunday.
Ángel Cintrón, the Puerto Rico Republican Party chair, told Jugando Pelota Dura that he will not vote for Trump if he does not directly apologize to Puerto Ricans for the remarks made at his rally.
POLITICO reported that a nonpartisan Puerto Rican group drafted a letter to urge its members to oppose Trump at the polls next week. The outlet also said some Puerto Rican voters are planning to protest Trump’s rally in Allentown on Tuesday.
“If we weren’t engaged before, we’re all paying attention now,” Victor Martinez, an Allentown resident who owns a Spanish language radio station, told POLITICO.
In 2020, Lehigh County, which includes Allentown, went to the President Joe Biden and Harris campaign, with 53.05 percent 185,655 votes casted. Trump received 45.47 percent of the vote.
Pennsylvania is a critical swing state, carrying 19 Electoral College votes. With just a few ten thousand votes deciding the election in this state for 2020, backlash from a community that numbers half a million voters in Pennsylvania alone could be the difference between victory and defeat on election night.
As of October 29, FiveThirtyEight aggregate polling shows the two nominees “even” in Pennsylvania, with Trump receiving 47.9 percent of the vote and Harris getting 47.7 percent. Biden won Pennsylvania overall by the smallest margin ever for a Democratic presidential candidate, at 1.17 percent.
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