- A comedian told a Trump rally on Sunday that Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage.”
- Puerto Rican celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, responded by showing support for Kamala Harris.
- The incident echoes the aftermath of Trump spreading a conspiracy theory about Haitian migrants.
Puerto Rican celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin voiced support for Kamala Harris after the island became a focal point of a Donald Trump rally.
Tony Hinchcliffe, a speaker at 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 angered Puerto Rican celebrities.
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 abudantly 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.”
On their Instagram stories, Fonsi, Lopez, and Martin shared a video of Harris outlining her plan to support Puerto Rico if she were elected, and urged their followers to vote for the Democratic nominee. Bad Bunny, a rapper and singer, reshared the same video on his story four times in a row without any captions.
None of these celebrities were great Republican allies before. Still, high-profile interventions can energize often-apathetic voters to turn out.
CBS News reported in September that more than 400,000 users visited the vote.gov voter registration website the day after Taylor Swift endorsed Harris on Instagram.
Harris‘ Instagram account shared the clip earlier on Sunday. In the video, she accused Trump of “blocking” aid after two hurricanes hit Puerto Rico in the span of two weeks in 2017, causing $90 billion in damage, a 180-day blackout, and killing an estimated 2,975 people.
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 found that $20 billion in aid the department intended to send to Puerto Rico was delayed due to 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. Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick, the first Haitian-American in Congress, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills personality Garcelle Beauvais spoke out after Trump made the false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were killing and eating pets.