Donald Trump appeals to supporters in majority-Latino Allentown as his opponents condemn Puerto Rico remarks
The event in Allentown was the first Trump held in Pennsylvania since crude remarks about Puerto Rico made at his New York Trump rally drew national outrage.
ALLENTOWN — Former President Donald Trump tried to win over voters in one of Pennsylvania’s largest Puerto Rican communities Tuesday, just two days after a comedian drew national outrage for making crude remarks about the island during a campaign rally.
During Tuesday’s rally in Allentown, a majority Latino city in the Lehigh Valley, Trump said he was offering “a message of hope for all Americans.”
“Our country will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer, stronger than ever before,” he said.
Trump didn’t directly address the remark made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe — who said Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage” — saying only that his Sunday rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden was “the greatest evening anyone’s seen, politically.”
The former president’s rally speech in Allentown was largely focused on immigration and was similar to his usual stump speech, dotted with a false claim about Pennsylvania’s election administration. Before Trump took the stage, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley announced the Trump campaign’s intent to sue Bucks County over long lines for voters casting mail ballots.
But the event overall demonstrated just how much the Sunday joke may have penetrated with voters, as the Trump campaign trotted out Latino supporters to back the former president.
Zoraida Buxo, the Republican “shadow senator” from Puerto Rico, endorsed Trump at the event. And several other speakers, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Florida), warmed up the crowd before Trump arrived, at times speaking in Spanish and espousing fondness for the territory.
“It’s easy to be distracted or misled by propaganda, emotional manipulation, and distortion of the truth and facts,” Buxo said. “I urge you to watch out and stay focused on what is truly important when you go to cast your vote. We need change.”
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With just a week until Election Day, the controversy stemming from Trump’s rally over the weekend has dominated headlines and activated the former president’s opponents. Top Pennsylvania Democrats said the comments — which have rocketed around social media for two days — have broken through with voters more than almost any other issue this campaign cycle.
It all comes as Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris remain neck-and-neck in battleground Pennsylvania, where the race could be decided on the margins. Trump has looked to grow his support in majority Latino cities — including Allentown, where 34,000 Puerto Ricans live — to help deliver him the commonwealth.
Harris on Tuesday spoke to a crowd near the White House, urging voters to reject Trump’s attempts to sow division and fear.
The Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s remarks, saying the joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” Prior to the rally, Trump took part in a roundtable discussion in Delaware County, where a participant from Puerto Rico told Trump that “Puerto Rico stands behind you.”
Trump thanked her, adding: “I think no president’s done more for Puerto Rico than I have.”
The Republican nominee’s Puerto Rican supporters in Allentown said they were unfazed.
Before the rally started, Luis Valentine burst out in Spanish at a crowd of anti-Trump protesters, saying they didn’t represent all Puerto Ricans. The 43-year-old said he left the Democratic party in 2016 to support Trump and hasn’t looked back.
Latinos, Valentine said, need to “open their eyes” to the island’s decline under Democratic presidents. He grew up in Ponce and came to the mainland United States when he was 7. He visits the island often, and blamed ineffective public services there on Democrats.
“They wanna talk about the joke and make a big fuss about the joke,” Valentine said, “but let’s look at the real picture: the crime in Puerto Rico, the actual garbage in Puerto Rico.”
» READ MORE: Growing support for Donald Trump in majority-Latino cities like Reading could help him win Pa.
Nadya Rodriguez and her daughter, Brianna Ramos, were among a contingent of Latinos who attended Tuesday’s Trump rally.
“I thought it was funny,” Rodriguez said of Hinchcliffe’s remark. “A lot of people expect Latinos to say ‘forget Trump,’ and that’s not me.”
Ramos said she’ll continue to support Trump because Harris has failed to curb the rising cost of groceries and other basic necessities during her four years in the Biden administration.
“With Trump, things were affordable,” she said. “Kamala Harris is acting like this came out of nowhere, like she’s literally not the vice president.”
Puerto Rico remarks ‘ignited a fire’
A few blocks away from the rally, Democrats gathered in a Harris campaign office Tuesday morning to slam Trump alongside actor Martin Sheen, known for his role as President Jed Bartlet in The West Wing. Sheen led the group in a rendition of “America, the Beautiful,” and said Trump’s New York rally was “a very great celebration of ignorance.”
Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, a Democrat and the first-ever Latino mayor of the city, said his city has an “incredibly strong connection to Puerto Rico.”
“[Trump] is here because he thinks we’ll forget,” Tuerk said. “He thinks he can come to Allentown and lie to us and lie about us.”
As thousands of MAGA-clad fans waited in line to see Donald Trump in downtown Allentown, a few dozen gathered to protest.
Armando Jimenez, a 30-year Allentown resident who works with the Latino advocacy group Make the Road Action PA, said the comment was the latest in a line of Trump’s indignities toward Puerto Ricans, referencing the backlash Trump faced in 2017 following Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico. Trump resisted sending aid to the island and threw paper towels into a crowd of people seeking disaster relief.
”He’s not welcome in Allentown,” Jimenez said.
Enid Santiago, an Allentown resident and business owner, said the Puerto Rico joke animated Latinos in Allentown to vote against Trump.
”It ignited a fire for every voter to wake up,” Santiago said. “And these are people who said they weren’t voting” before Sunday.
Trump speech focused on economic promises and immigration
The former president spent much of his speech reviewing his campaign promises, including to end federal taxes on tips and to bolster energy production in states like Pennsylvania. He spoke forcefully about curbing illegal immigration and instituting a mass deportation program, a cornerstone of his campaign.
The former president also repeatedly attacked Harris, her running mate, and her allies, calling the vice president “incompetent” and saying former First Lady Michelle Obama — who has been campaigning for Harris — “was very nasty to me.”
Trump also spoke about the size of his campaign rally crowds and referred them as evidence of “the greatest movement in the history of the world.”
His backers largely filled the PPL Center in Allentown, which can fit about 8,500 spectators. They broke out several times in chants of “fight, fight, fight,” a rallying cry and a reference to what Trump said seconds after he was shot in the ear during an attempted assassination in Butler, Pa. in July.
“This is a feisty crowd,” Trump remarked as they cheered.
Supporters who stood in line for hours to get a seat inside largely said they support Trump because he’s promised to bring down prices. Christian Rice, a 23-year-old from Quakertown, said he’s “not big on Trump” from a personality perspective, but supports his policies to improve the economy and tackle inflation.
He said he voted for Trump in 2020, but “more begrudgingly.” This time around, he said he doesn’t believe Harris could reduce prices as president given inflation was persistently high during her four years as vice president.
“We need to support his economic policies,” Rice said. “He’s a much better fit.”
Staff writer Fallon Roth contributed to this article.