The Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, speaks at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
ALLENTOWN — Former President Donald Trump returned to the biggest battleground state Tuesday for an evening rally in Pennsylvania’s largest city with a majority Latino population. The visit comes just days after a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally made racist comments about Puerto Rico, which have been widely condemned across the political spectrum.
Trump opened the Allentown rally with some of his familiar rhetoric, insulting Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ candidate for president.
“If we win Pennsylvania, we’re going to win the whole deal,” Trump said. “Next Tuesday, you have to stand up and you have to tell Kamala that you’ve had enough. You’re not going to take any more. Kamala, you’re fired.”
Trump’s Tuesday began with a morning press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and then a roundtable discussion on senior issues with Pennsylvania supporters at a banquet hall in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby Township in Philadelphia’s Delaware County suburbs.
Among the panelists were Maribel Cruz, an occupational therapist who moved to the mainland U.S. from Puerto Rico as a teenager. She did not mention the furor surrounding comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s reference to the U.S. territory as “floating island of garbage” at Trump’s rally but expressed support for Trump on behalf of Puerto Rico.
“I want you to know that Puerto Rico stands behind you,” Cruz said.
Trump thanked Cruz and recalled his administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in 2017, which caused widespread damage and long-term power outages that resulted in thousands of deaths across the island in the months that followed.
“You remember you were there when I brought the hospital ship, against everyone’s advice, and we got it in there, and took care of a lot of people, but I think no president’s done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” Trump said.
Trump: NYC rally where Puerto Rico was labeled ‘island of garbage’ was a ‘lovefest’
Other panelists included a retired Upper Darby Township police lieutenant who spoke about struggling to make ends meet on his police pension and his wife’s nurse’s pension and gerontologist who spoke about struggling to care for her own elderly mother after she was unable to afford upkeep for her home.
Before the panelists were introduced, Trump spoke for about half an hour on familiar topics to his followers including the border and immigration, transgender women playing women’s sports and election integrity.
Trump referred to announcements by officials in Lancaster and York counties that they are investigating suspicious batches of voter registration applications. He inaccurately claimed that officials found 2,600 fraudulent applications in Lancaster County.
Officials there said Friday that the number of applications with false information was still being determined. Officials in York County said only that a large number of applications received together were being carefully processed.
Harris said people were “exhausted” with Trump, in reference to the Madison Square Garden rally.
“Donald Trump spends full time trying to have Americans point their finger at each other, fans the fuel of hate and division,” Harris told reporters Monday.
A Tuesday press release from the Democratic National Committee noted Harris campaigned at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Pennsylvania on Sunday night at nearly the same time Hinchcliffe called the territory a “floating island of garbage” at Trump’s rally. Hinchcliffe also made a lewd joke about Latino immigrants.
The DNC planned billboard ads near Pennsylvania’s Puerto Rican communities referencing the “island of garbage” quote. The billboards will be placed on highways near Allentown, Reading and Philadelphia, which have significant Puerto Rican populations.
Although Trump visited the Lehigh Valley in April, Tuesday is the first visit from either presidential candidate of the 2024 campaign to Allentown, the state’s third largest city.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ candidate for vice president, held a rally in the Lehigh Valley in September and visited a Latino restaurant in Allentown on Friday. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff led a rally in Allentown in September in an effort to win over Latino voters.
U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president, has made multiple appearances in Berks County, home to Reading, which is a city with a significant Latino population. Donald Trump Jr. made a campaign appearance in the Lehigh Valley on Monday, as well.
Data from the 2020 U.S. Census shows Lehigh County, which is home to Allentown, has the largest percentage of Hispanic residents in the state, with 25.9%, followed closely by Berks County with 23.2%.
Both candidates seeking to represent the 7th Congressional District, where Allentown is located have denounced the racist “jokes” about Puerto Rico from Trump’s rally.
“I am incredibly proud to represent a diverse constituency, including a vibrant Puerto Rican population that is an important part of this community,” U.S. Rep. Susan Wild said in a statement. “Our Puerto Rican community represents some of the best of what America has: loving, smart people who have contributed so much to my community, and the United States as a whole, many of whom serve in our military and defend our country.”
“This is reprehensible, dangerous, hateful rhetoric that I condemn and every politician should condemn,” she added.
“The comments made by this so-called ‘comedian’ at Madison Square Garden weren’t funny, they were offensive and wrong,” state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, the Republican candidate attempting to unseat Wild, told POLITICO.
According to a 2019 report from the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, just under 500,000 Puerto Ricans live in Pennsylvania, making it the state with the third largest concentration in the nation. Philadelphia has the second-largest stateside Puerto Rican population among U.S. cities, while Allentown is eighth, according to the 2020 Census.
Pennsylvania is the most important of seven swing states in next week’s election, with 19 electoral votes.
This is a developing story that will be updated.