A Trump-rally speaker insulted Puerto Rico. Now its most powerful stars are backing Harris.
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- A comedian told a Trump rally on Sunday that Puerto Rico is "a floating island of garbage."
- Puerto Rican celebrities, including Bad Bunny, responded by showing support for Kamala Harris.
- The incident echoes the aftermath of Trump spreading a false claim about Haitian immigrants.
Puerto Rican celebrities including Jennifer Lopez and Bad Bunny voiced support for Vice President Kamala Harris after the island became a focal point of a Trump rally.
Tony Hinchcliffe, a speaker at former President Donald Trump's Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, 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. I think it's called Puerto Rico."
The comment got a reaction from Puerto Rican celebrities.
Bad Bunny, a rap star and one of the most streamed artists in the world, was among those who shared a video of Harris outlining her plan to support Puerto Rico if she's elected.
Others, such as Lopez and the singer Ricky Martin, shared the clip as part of posts more overtly urging people to vote for her.
Luis Fonsi, the singer behind the 2017 hit "Despacito," wrote on his Instagram story: "It's ok to have different views, and I respect those who think different than me…. but going down this RACIST path ain't it."
He said: "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."
Martin shared the video on his story and captioned it in Spanish: "This is what they think of us."
None of these celebrities were great Republican allies before. Still, high-profile interventions can energize apathetic voters to turn out.
CBS News reported in September that the day after Taylor Swift endorsed Harris on Instagram, a link in Swift's post drove more than 400,000 visitors to Vote.gov, which helps people register to vote.
Harris' Instagram account shared the clip about her plan earlier on Sunday. In the video, she accuses Trump of blocking aid after two hurricanes hit Puerto Rico in the span of two weeks in 2017. Hurricane Maria, one of the storms, caused over $90 billion in damage, a historic blackout, and the deaths of an estimated 2,975 people in Puerto Rico.
Trump said in 2018 that his administration's response to the hurricanes was "an incredible, unsung success," but it was widely criticized at the time.
In 2021, a report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General said $20 billion in aid the department intended to send to Puerto Rico was delayed because of interagency reviews under the Trump administration. The investigators did not say why these reviews were implemented.
It's not the first time Trump and his allies have angered celebrities from a Caribbean community.
Last month, high-profile Haitians including Wyclef Jean, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the first Haitian American in Congress, and the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" personality Garcelle Beauvais spoke out after Trump made the false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were killing and eating pets.
Correction: October 28, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the statistics about hurricanes Irma and Maria. The details relate to Maria only, not both storms.