An online shop that sells Puerto Rico-themed merchandise has offered to send a box of trash on behalf of any customer to the Trump campaign and the comedian who called the territory an “island of garbage.”
Boricua-Shop, a North Carolina-based operation that claims to be “100 percent family-owned,” sells a variety of merchandise themed with the Puerto Rico flag or emblazoned with the word “Boricua,” the term used to identify natives of Puerto Rico or those of Puerto Rican descent.
The site sells T-shirts, swimsuits, stickers, pillows, phone cases and home goods, among other things—including boxes of trash. The boxes, which have “From Puerto Rico with Love,” carry a card with custom messages and come overflowing with random assorted “trash”—”as much as we can fit,” according to the website.
The boxes cost $2 and are sent to “Tony Hinchcliffe & his party.” The site claims that “we have their address and we will send it on your behalf via mail!” while assuring that names and addresses of buyers will not be included in the delivery.
The store posted a picture of two dozen of the “garbage” boxes, each marked: “To: Tony From Puerto Rico with Love” and the comment, “Our latest garbage-batch shipment is ready for Tony Hinchcliffe.”
Newsweek reached out by email to Hinchcliffe, the Trump campaign and Boricua-Shop for comment on Thursday.
Hinchcliffe set social media ablaze when he made a joke at the Trump campaign rally in Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday, just over a week before Election Day. The comedian, who made waves for a very brash set on “The Roast of Tom Brady,” referred to Puerto Rico as an “island of garbage.”
The joke was met with confused silence at the rally and with anger online and in public. Republican allies from states with large Puerto Rican populations condemned the comment, and the chairman of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico urged Trump to publicly apologize for the comments, saying he would withhold support for Trump until that happens.
The Trump campaign looked to change the conversation by seizing on a President Joe Biden gaffe in which he said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters…his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American.”
Biden claimed that he was speaking of the “hateful rhetoric coming out of the Madison Square Garden rally” and not Trump’s supporters, but that didn’t stop Trump from turning up in Wisconsin to sit in a Trump campaign-branded garbage truck and blast the sitting president for his comments.
“How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden,” Trump told reporters as he leaned out a window and took questions.
Trump also referred to the comments during a rally in New Mexico on Thursday afternoon, directing the comment at the gathered supporters and drawing sharp boos from the crowd.
However, clips of Trump calling those close to Harris “garbage” and “scum” resurfaced in the past week. Political social media influencer Leigh McGowan, during an appearance on CNN, noted that many critics have tried to hold Harris accountable for Biden’s comment, but “we’re not asking Trump to answer for what Trump said.”
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