Trump: New York rally that called Puerto Rico ‘garbage island’ was a ‘love festival’

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump repeated his tough stance on immigration during an hour-long appearance at his Florida country club on Tuesday, even as Democrats highlight the racist rhetoric his campaign and allies used to describe Latinos in the final week of the presidential race.

Speaking at Mar-a-Lago, the former president addressed the criticism in passing his rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday he received, among others: comparisons to a 1939 American Nazi rally in the same building, but did not directly address the uproar caused by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s jokes targeting Puerto Rican and Latino immigrants.

Trump sought to change the narrative that followed the New York rally, calling the atmosphere “an absolute love fest.”

“I don’t think anyone has ever seen anything like what happened that night at Madison Square Garden, love, love, love in that room. It was breathtaking,” he said.

“You know, they started saying, ‘Well, in 1939, Nazis used Madison Square Garden.’ …What a terrible thing to say, right? Because, you know, they used Madison Square Garden many times. A lot of people have used it, but no one has ever had a crowd like this.”

Speakers at Trump’s six-hour rally in New York insult Puerto Ricans and mock Harris’ race

The former president continued to promote his uncompromising stance on immigration, a major issue of his campaign, using racist language to describe the issue.

“I know we’re talking about inflation and the economy, but for me there is nothing, nothing more important than the destruction of the fabric of our country by the people who were put there, put there brutally,” he said. “I think what’s happening at the border is the biggest problem, and I’m seeing that more and more when I speak.”

Trump repeated the debunked claim that Aurora, Colorado, was overrun by Venezuelan gangs and claimed without evidence that “at least” 325,000 migrant children were brought into the country as “slaves or sex slaves.”

Trump did not answer questions during the event billed as a news conference.

Harris and the DNC keep Puerto Rico in the spotlight

Democrats, including the party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have sought to contrast the language Trump and his allies used toward Latinos with the language Harris used.

“Donald Trump is constantly trying to get Americans to point fingers at each other, stoking the fuel of hatred and division,” Harris told reporters on Monday of Trump’s rally in New York. “And that’s why people are tired of him.”

Harris outlines Puerto Rico’s modern political plans as part of the campaign in Philadelphia

A Tuesday press release from the Democratic National Committee noted that Harris campaigned at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Pennsylvania on Sunday evening, almost at the same time as Hinchcliffe called the territory a “floating island of garbage.” Hinchcliffe also made a joke about Latino immigrants.

During the event, Trump also promised a “new golden” age of closed borders.

“Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican Party is driven by hate and extremism – and that is what the Trump campaign has chosen to convey to voters as the closing message of this campaign,” said DNC co-executive director Monica Guardiola.

“These hateful and racist attacks reveal a deeper truth about Trump’s Project 2025 agenda: he will turn back the clock on our rights, rip babies from their mothers’ arms, disinvest in our communities, and shut down our small businesses so he can protect the pockets of his billionaire supporters.”

The statement also said the party would run ads on billboards near Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania, with the Washington Post’s headline quoting Hinchcliffe.

“Trump Speakers Throw Racist Slurs, Call Puerto Rico ‘Garbage Island’,” the billboards read.

Pennsylvania, perhaps the most critical of the seven swing states heading into next week’s election, is home to about 8% of the 5.6 million Puerto Ricans living in the United States, the fourth-largest concentration of any state.

DNC billboards will be placed on highways near Allentown, Reading and Philadelphia, which have significant Puerto Rican populations, the DNC says.

Trump was scheduled to make a campaign stop in Allentown on Tuesday afternoon.

Trump is trying to turn things around

On Tuesday morning at Mar-a-Lago, Trump tried to frame Harris and Democrats as anti-American agents, continuing a theme he emphasized in the final weeks of the campaign that his political opponents were the “enemy within.”

Commentators and experts on extremism do he warned that the language was veering towards fascism.

Calling his own campaign event a love event — despite his aggressive anti-immigration stance — Trump said Harris was running a “hate campaign.”

“In fact, perhaps more than anything else, this is a campaign of hate, a campaign of absolute hatred,” he said. — I said yesterday that she was a vessel. She is a vessel. This is a very enormous, powerful party made up of sharp people – they must be sharp, but this is cruel. They are cruel and may even be trying to destroy our country.”

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