Trump is paying the price for insulting Puerto Rico

On Sunday, Donald Trump and his supporters gave their closing speech at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. It started with offensive, identity-based jokes straight out of the '80s; continued with a greeting to a black man involving watermelon; and at one point suggested that Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, was a sex worker. There was a sprinkling of anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and xenophobic commentary along the way, including this gem from Trump adviser Stephen Miller: “America is for Americans only.”

The biting event included a few choice lines about Latinos from Tony Hinchcliffe, the comedian chosen by the Trump campaign to kick off the event. Hinchcliffe, who is also a podcaster, began with teen sex jokes about Latinos – “They love having babies” – before describing Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.

As a Nuyorican – as New Yorkers from the Puerto Rican diaspora affectionately call themselves – I am excited about any mention of the island and my people. And little has been said about most of this campaign. So it was a surprise that on the same day that Hinchcliffe spoke at Madison Square Garden, Vice President Harris released a video outlining her plan for Puerto Rico and visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia on the campaign trail located.

The coincidence was serendipitous because it offered Puerto Ricans a real-time split screen. Many saw Harris trying to learn and address the concerns of Puerto Ricans. Trump showed that he was only willing to welcome Latinos into his tent if they were complicit with his racist worldview. The language used at the Trump rally “was so simple and just very sincere about how they really feel,” said Paola Ramos, the author of Defectors: The Rise of the Far-Right Latino Movement and What It Means for Americatold me.

After the “Island of Trash” remark drew criticism, the Trump campaign tried to distance itself. (As everyone knows, Harris is responsible for everything people around her do, but Trump is innocent of even the things he was found guilty of.) “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump,” said a campaign official.

No matter how hard the campaign may try to disavow Hinchcliffe's joke, it cannot avoid the fact that this language only reinforced the sense of contempt that Puerto Ricans had already experienced from Trump. The insult gave Democrats the perfect opportunity to remind Latino voters — and Puerto Ricans in particular — of something Harris addressed in her video: Trump's anemic and insulting response to islanders after Hurricane María in 2017.

From the November 2022 issue: Let Puerto Rico be free

Hurricane Harvey had hit Texas a month earlier; There, FEMA approved $142 million in individual assistance for hurricane victims within nine days. Nine days after María, FEMA had approved only $6.2 million for Puerto Ricans. Texas had far more helicopters, meals, water and government personnel. When then-President Trump finally visited the storm-ravaged island — nearly two weeks after the hurricane had passed — he told residents they were lucky they hadn't experienced a “real disaster like Katrina” and had experienced a more meaningful disaster with it He threw rolls of paper towels into the crowd at a media event in support.

This year, Puerto Rican celebrities, including Marc Anthony, have already worked to remind voters of all that during the Harris campaign. After Sunday's rally, Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez shared Harris' video and announced they would be voting for her. Lopez will appear with Harris tomorrow.

But none of these recommendations are as important as those of the musician Bad Bunny. His fan base is huge and young and includes both men and women. And unlike many stars who avoid bringing politics onto their stage, San Benito, as he is known to his fans, has put politics, and particularly the politics of colonialism, at the center of his art. He was active as Puerto Rico neared its gubernatorial election, also on November 5, buying billboards arguing that a vote for the ruling party was a vote for corruption. His attitude carries weight.

For months of support from megawatt stars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Harris, I've been hearing people ask where Bad Bunny has been. Why didn't Bad Bunny Harris help? The answer was obvious to me: Even though Bad Bunny is a US citizen and a global superstar, he is not allowed to vote in presidential elections.

Bad Bunny lives in Puerto Rico, and disenfranchisement is just one of the many inequalities that define the islanders' second-class citizens. But even if Puerto Rican residents are not allowed to vote, they can still influence the diaspora on the mainland, which is certainly possible. And that's exactly what Bad Bunny does.

After Trump's rally, Bad Bunny shared a clip of Harris' Puerto Rico video several times with his 45.7 million Instagram followers. In particular, he selected the section in which Harris says, “There is so much at stake in this election for Puerto Rican voters and for Puerto Rico” and in which she reminds people how Trump gave paper towels to the islanders after the hurricane threw.

Harris' plan for Puerto Rico calls for creating an “opportunity economy” on the island by strengthening the electric grid, providing clean energy credits to islanders, and creating affordable housing, job creation incentives, and investment in Puerto Rican entrepreneurs and creators, among several other major initiatives. Their plan clearly sidesteps major colonial issues, such as repealing the Jones Act – the 100-year-old tariff on products and goods shipped to the island that costs residents an estimated $692 million a year. Nor is it about passing the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act — a bill championed by Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that would allow islanders to vote on Puerto Rico's status as a commonwealth. What Harris' plan does offer, however, are thoughtful solutions to many of the problems that have plagued the island, particularly in recent years, and that is more than anyone can claim from Trump.

The more the phrase about “floating trash” is repeated – on television, on the radio – the angrier Puerto Ricans become. More Puerto Ricans now live on the mainland than on the island. Ironically, one consequence of the botched response to María was the exodus of thousands of islanders – many of them to swing states like Pennsylvania, where nearly half a million Puerto Ricans now live. Tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans also currently live in Georgia and Arizona. Democratic strategist José Parra recounted The hill that what happened at Madison Square Garden could make a real difference: “If Pennsylvania goes to the Democrats, I think you can look at that as a defining moment.”

Much has been made of the growing support for Trump among Latinos, and this offense is unlikely to sway any of his true believers. But it could motivate some Latinos who had planned to sit out the election. Victor Martinez, who owns a local Spanish-language radio station in Pennsylvania, said Politically that a large part of the population there was undecided about even wanting to vote. The Trump rally changed that. “If we weren’t engaged before, we’re all paying attention now,” he said.

Puerto Ricans love their island – even those who have never had the opportunity to travel there. Yes, there are stunning beaches, lush green mountains and the sound of the Coqui. But what we love most is the warmth of our culture: the music, the dance, the food, the art, our people. It is a place that calls us when we are far away and hugs us when we come home. The joke wasn't just an insult; It was a reminder of the neglect and disrespect that the place and its people have faced for decades at the hands of the United States government and especially during the Trump administration.

When Bad Bunny was once asked about his political involvement, he said: “I don't get involved in politics; Politics invades my life because it affects my country, because it affects Puerto Rico.”