No One Liked That Trump Rally Puerto Rico Joke
On Sunday, Donald Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden that included appearances from Hulk Hogan and Elon Musk. To kick things off, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe attempted to warm up the crowd. Hinchcliffe, who hosts a weekly live podcast called Kill Tony and is a longtime protégé of Joe Rogan, crammed an impressive variety of offensive jokes into his set, including a quip that Travis Kelce “might be the next O.J. Simpson” and a bit where he claimed to have “carved watermelons” at a Halloween party with a Black audience member.
During a particularly nasty moment, Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.” The line elicited groans from the audience, prompting Hinchcliffe to complain that he wasn’t used to going onstage after the national anthem and this “isn’t exactly a perfect comedy setup.”
“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” pic.twitter.com/IXbXqDijyU
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 27, 2024
In the wake of the rally, Hinchcliffe is facing backlash for the Puerto Rico joke from pretty much everyone. A handful of celebrities, including Ricky Martin, Luis Fonsi, Spike Lee, and Rosie Perez, have posted angry reactions to the clip on their Instagram Stories. On Sunday, seemingly in response to the joke, Jennifer Lopez and Bad Bunny both reposted a video from Kamala Harris’s campaign in which Harris condemns Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria and talks about her plan to revitalize Puerto Rico’s economy and modernize the island’s energy grid.
Gov. Walz and @AOC react to this clip: “When you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico ‘floating garbage,’ know that that's what they think about you. It's what they think about anyone who makes less money than them… I want every Puerto Rican in Philadelphia and Reading and… https://t.co/L5GdSvLJWT pic.twitter.com/y9DQTABM0v
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 27, 2024
Tim Walz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also discussed Hinchcliffe’s joke during a Twitch streaming session in which they played Madden and talked about politics and culture. “The things they do in Puerto Rico are a testing ground for the policies and the horrors that they unveil in working-class communities across the United States,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding, “What is trash is people actually thinking of other human beings that way.”
Even Republicans are distancing themselves from Hinchcliffe’s brand of controversial humor. Florida representative María Elvira Salazar wrote on X that she was “disgusted” by his “racist comment,” adding that “this rhetoric does not reflect GOP values.” Her colleague, Florida senator Rick Scott, added that it “bombed for a reason. It’s not funny and it’s not true.” Even the Trump campaign itself seemed to recognize the line was a step too far — a senior campaign adviser told reporters in a statement that Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
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