Donald Trump just made a powerful enemy.
A lot has been normalized in our politics over the past decade, since the host of Celebrity Apprentice came down his golden escalator and said Mexican immigrants were rapists and criminals. But in one night, this demented campaign still managed to cross a line.
If you haven’t heard about it, Trump decided to do a big rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Why NYC? We mean, New York isn’t a swing state. It generally isn’t even in play. Not to be a broken record, but come on! It’s a dog whistle. MSG was the site of the country’s biggest, most infamous Nazi Rally in 1939. This stuff isn’t an accident. It wasn’t an accident Trump changed his hat from Red and White to the Proud Boy colors of Gold and Black the day before. It wasn’t an accident they played a few bars of Dixie — wishing they were back “in the land of cotton” — before a Black speaker took the stage. (Yes, really.)
Related: Donald Trump Said He Wants ‘The Kind Of Generals That Hitler Had’
And if you need more proof this was all about hatemongering and racism, look no further than the remarks by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. You may know the name from a roast or two — but he isn’t that big a comic. No, he was there because of the message he was willing to spew. In words that may well be printed in history books, he said:
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Trump rally speaker: “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico” pic.twitter.com/pbw88p5PhI
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 27, 2024
Yeah. He called Puerto Rico an island of garbage. And guess who heard him? Every Puerto Rican you know. And shortly after that, they heard something else — the response from some of the biggest names in music right now.
Just minutes after the remarks, Jennifer Lopez took to X (Twitter) to repost Kamala Harris‘ video talking about investing more heavily in Puerto Rico.
????????????️✔️???? https://t.co/9hGPEU12no
— jlo (@JLo) October 27, 2024
In a wild coincidence, that campaign vid went up almost at the same time as Hinchcliffe’s remarks. The contrast is as stark as it gets. And J.Lo made that clear to her 44 million followers.
Bad Bunny shared the same video to his Instagram Story just a couple hours later. He has 45 million IG followers, BTW. For those counting.
Superstar Ricky Martin actually explicitly linked the two campaigns’ views by posting the Kamala video AND the Trump rally one, writing, “I remember.” More disturbing, the Livin La Vida Loca singer claimed he had tried to post about it on X (Twitter) but got suppressed. Oh, you mean the X owned by Elon Musk, who was also at the rally cheering on Trump? And who was wearing a MAGA hat that some experts are saying was specially made in fraktur font — aka “the German typeface”?
Elon Musk takes stage at MSG for Trump's rally and once again proclaims he is 'Dark MAGA’
Only this time he is now 'dark, gothic MAGA' and unveils a new hat design pic.twitter.com/0WqziGf9dI
— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) October 28, 2024
Despacito singer Luis Fonsi posted the Kamala video, too, and he had a clear message for America to go along with it:
“We are not OK with this constant hate. It’s been abundantly clear that these people have no respect for us and yet they want our vote. I purposely wrote this in English cause yes we’re American too.”
Well, said!
Even the Trump campaign seemed to realize quickly how bad this was, with the impact tremor being felt through the Puerto Rican community. Senior adviser Danielle Alvarez released a statement to the New York Times distancing Trump from the opening act:
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
OK… if Hinchcliffe doesn’t reflect the views of the campaign, why was he there? Why were his remarks, including that joke, approved? Look, the man was reading off a TELEPROMPTER. Every speaker was vetted, and everything they said was approved. So spare us this false pearl-clutching!
This is the same racism Trump has been selling for the past few years. He claimed that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets at the presidential debate just a few weeks ago.
As for Puerto Rico? A former Department of Homeland Security official who worked with him during his first presidency claimed he called the island “dirty” and wanted to trade it for Greenland. Seriously, after he visited (and threw paper towels) following the damage done by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, he”expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes,” according to former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor.
There’s so much noise, so much chaos with Trump that people forget these things. But we don’t think the Puerto Rican community will forget this one.
What do YOU think, Perezcious readers??
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