A comedian’s racist joke about Puerto Rico, which slandered the U.S. territory as a “floating island of garbage,” at a rally for Donald Trump on Oct. 27 was ironically made on the same Madison Square Garden stage on the 50th anniversary of perhaps the largest rally for Puerto Rican independence ever held in the United States.
While the politics of 2024 are very different from those of 1974, the unresolved nature of the island’s status and the perception that neglect and corruption have caused conditions there to deteriorate have remained relatively constant—especially since Hurricane Maria in 2017. All of this is sparking resentment among many Puerto Rican voters who found that the joke added insult to injury.
A comedian’s racist joke about Puerto Rico, which slandered the U.S. territory as a “floating island of garbage,” at a rally for Donald Trump on Oct. 27 was ironically made on the same Madison Square Garden stage on the 50th anniversary of perhaps the largest rally for Puerto Rican independence ever held in the United States.
While the politics of 2024 are very different from those of 1974, the unresolved nature of the island’s status and the perception that neglect and corruption have caused conditions there to deteriorate have remained relatively constant—especially since Hurricane Maria in 2017. All of this is sparking resentment among many Puerto Rican voters who found that the joke added insult to injury.
Some 900,000 people of Puerto Rican descent live in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. There are even some observers who think Puerto Ricans can still affect the outcome in states such as Florida. The reaction to the remarks at the Trump rally was especially strong in Pennsylvania, with nearly 500,000 Puerto Rican residents.
Being called “garbage” within the context of several other insults wielded at Haitians (whose country Trump has called a “shithole”) and at amnesty-seeking migrants, who Trump has said are turning the United States into a “garbage can,” is a tipping point for Puerto Ricans who often feel like “second-class citizens.” The comments could also threaten the former president’s ability to gain ground with U.S. Latino voters in general.
The fallout from the rally has precipitated a cavalcade of support for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign from Puerto Rican celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Rosie Perez, and Aubrey Plaza, the latter using an expletive to express what her late grandmother would have said about the joke. Crucially, the hugely popular reggaetón rapper Bad Bunny also joined the Harris endorsers after initially not being moved by outreach from the vice president’s campaign, marking a significant departure.
Due to the island’s status as an unincorporated territory, Puerto Rican voters on the island, while U.S. citizens, cannot vote in federal elections. But what happens on the island can affect voter sentiments of those who can vote by virtue of their residence on the mainland. Bad Bunny’s decision to support Harris points to the often unexplored synergy between seismic political events in Puerto Rico and their effects on voters living in the mainland United States.
Bad Bunny has been focused on the emergence of a new alliance between two political parties, the Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP) and the left-liberal Citizens’ Victory Movement, which is threatening to upend the long-standing duopoly of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) and the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party. In the last several weeks, the artist has even put up billboards calling for the end of the PNP’s “corrupt” rule.
Thanks in part to such celebrity campaigning, as well as the coming of age of a generation that marched to remove pro-statehood Governor Ricardo Rosselló in 2019, recent polls suggest the alliance is gaining and its candidate, Juan Dalmau of the PIP, even has a chance at winning the office of governor—especially since his PNP opponent, Jenniffer González-Colón has faced increased criticism for openly supporting Trump’s candidacy.
The alliance—whose main messaging focuses on corrupt governance, along with the U.S.-imposed Financial Oversight and Management Board and the sale of the island’s electrical authority to a North America-based consortium whose stewardship is marred by continual blackouts—has even received endorsements from U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velázquez, along with 12 more Puerto Rican elected officials from states like Missouri, Minnesota, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
These endorsements are part of a Democratic Party strategy to attract voters in the United States who have family and friends in Puerto Rico and would like to see change on the island. Since Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans have moved to the mainland in near-record numbers, keeping a close eye on developments back home. But while worries about the homeland hold great sway, most Puerto Rican voters in the Nov. 5 election are focused on issues they face on the mainland.
It is no secret that the Trump campaign has been trying to flip Puerto Rican voters, who have traditionally voted Democratic. Puerto Ricans fall into a Latino demographic that has been peppered by disinformation campaigns and appeals to assert their masculinity by the Trump campaign. And there is some evidence that Trump has made gains among Latino voters, particularly men.
One of the central narratives of this shift is the idea that Puerto Ricans, and Latinos in general, are more concerned about their fortunes in the economy and that they associate post-pandemic inflation with the Biden presidency.
Yet the Trump rally comedian may have undermined that shift. He not only angered Puerto Ricans; he also made offensive remarks about Latinos in general—“they love making babies”—and suggested they’re implanting themselves on U.S. soil through immigration. The outburst of bigotry could have an effect not seen much since the days of when Mexican American civil rights activist Corky Gonzalez spoke at the 1974 rally for Puerto Rican independence. Last week, one prominent Mexican American cartoonist posted a cartoon that read: “We are all Puerto Rican!!”
In a telling moment, a lesser-known Puerto Rican celebrity renounced his previous support for Trump. Reggaetón rapper Nicky Jam had appeared onstage with Trump and endorsed him in Las Vegas in September. But a few days after the rally debacle, Jam posted a video in which he said he had endorsed Trump because he thought “he was the best for the economy in the United States, where many Latinos live. … Never in my life did I think that a month later a comedian was going to come and speak badly of my country.”
It’s possible that Nicky Jam’s change of heart could have a greater effect on Puerto Rican voters than the celebrity Avengers backing Harris, whose fans probably already knew whom they would vote for.
Potential Puerto Rican Republican voters might just decide that their candidate’s economic promises—backed by a dubious strategy of tariffs and governmental austerity—are trumped by deep feelings of national pride.
This post is part of FP’s live coverage with global updates and analysis throughout the U.S. election. Follow along here.
The post How Slandering Puerto Ricans Harms the GOP appeared first on Foreign Policy.
