In the days after Donald Trump’s infamous Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden where a comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” Republicans demanded people “get over” their feelings, claiming that it was just a “joke.” Trump walked around claiming he knew nothing about the comedian, as if the controversy was about his personal Rolodex and not what people were saying in his name, at his rallies, with his implied consent.
Here’s what’s particularly funny: The racism on display at that rally didn’t just break through the cacophony of Trump scandals, but it is Republicans who helped amplify it—and made the consequences worse for Trump and the GOP.
As a reminder, here’s what MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe said to warm up the crowd of Trump faithful:
“There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Then he kept going.
“And these Latinos, they love making babies too,” Hinchcliffe said. “Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
The “roast” comedian went on to make racist jokes about Black people, Jews, and Palestinians. Weirdly, he made zero jokes about white evangelical conservative men.
Trump and his surrogates could’ve done something crazy: apologize. The Republican presidential nominee could’ve taken the stage that same night and said, “Woah, that’s not what I stand for.” While it’s totally what he stands for, the media would’ve fallen for it because they love nothing more than giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. But he couldn’t apologize, because he believes it. He literally wanted to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland.
A couple of days later, President Joe Biden delivered a Rorschach test of a sentence in which he was saying that Hinchcliffe was garbage, but MAGA pretended he said all Trump supporters were garbage. Because they are the weirdest people in the world, they decided to walk around wearing trash bags and calling each other trash. They were still on that this weekend.
Here’s the thing: The world doesn’t live in MAGA world’s stupid little anti-reality bubble. And in the real world, few saw Biden’s comments because—who cares?
But what did Latinos see?
“Nilsa Vega and Neidel Pacheco of Hellertown, a borough south of Bethlehem, both said they had never voted before, but Hinchcliffe’s remarks were the reason they planned to vote for Harris on Tuesday,” reported HuffPost. “Pacheco saw Trump’s decision to pose in a garbage truck at a campaign stop in Wisconsin the following day as an additional insult. ‘If he didn’t have nothing to do with it, what’s he doing in the garbage truck?’ Pacheco asked.”
By wearing trash bags and talking about garbage and riding around in garbage trucks, these Pennsylvania Latinos think Republicans are doubling down on the insult. And even if Latino voters don’t make that connection, Republicans who continue to talk about garbage are keeping the original story alive. This might be the single best example of how terminally online 4Chan MAGA Republicans have completely lost touch with reality, to their party’s detriment.
And the fallout is palpable. Here is a report from CNN about Las Vegas Latinos in swing state Nevada, and even Fox News is covering Latino anger in Pennsylvania.
But who needs anecdotal evidence when we have hard data? A blockbuster Univision/YouGov poll of Pennsylvania Latinos shows just how deeply the garbage scandal damaged the Republican campaign.
The poll found that the state’s Latinos preferred Vice President Kamala Harris 64-30. That’s not far from 2020 exit polls that found Keystone State Latinos voting for Biden 69-27, and flies in the face of prior conventional wisdom that Trump was making inroads with nonwhite voters.
Among those polled by Univision, 88% heard about the rally and the attacks on Puerto Rico. Of those, 69% were offended by the “garbage” remark, and just 17% brushed it off as a joke.
“Among Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania—a group particularly affected by the remarks made at the rally—71% reported that, even if intended as a joke, these comments suggest that there is racism within the Trump campaign,” reported Univision. I would bet that maybe 1% of those polled heard about Biden’s remark.
Furthermore, 62% of respondents said they considered Trump disrespectful toward Latinos, and half said they would be more likely to vote for Harris because of the comments.
“While respect for the Latino community remains a priority, Pennsylvania Latino voters also indicated interest in candidates’ economic agendas,” Univision reported. “However, given a hypothetical choice between a candidate who prioritizes respect for the Latino community and another who emphasizes economic growth without explicitly condemning racism, a majority still leaned toward the candidate who demonstrated respect. This finding suggests that, for many Latino voters, cultural respect is a critical value that influences their political choices alongside economic concerns.”
For context, 467,000 Puerto Ricans live in Pennsylvania, 115,000 live in North Carolina, 65,000 live in Wisconsin, and 109,000 live in Georgia. As for states with competitive Senate races: 1.15 million Boricuas live in Florida, while 230,000 live in Texas.
