Not-so warm Trump welcome in Allentown as Puerto Ricans swing away after offensive rally

Victor Martinez’s radio stations were flooded with calls. Yesenia Westerband’s food truck customers were buzzing about it. Guillermo Lopez’s Facebook feed was full of comments.

"Como Puertorrique?o te diré que eso no tiene manera de disculparse!!!" one listener commented on Martinez's show. "As a Puerto Rican there's no apology that will do."

As Donald Trump descended on Allentown, Pennsylvania Tuesday for a rally, remarks by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the former president’s Madison Square Guardian event Sunday calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” were rocketing through the community’s sizeable Puerto Rican population.

Martinez, Westerband and Lopez all are of Puerto Rican heritage and said Hinchcliffe’s comments were the talk of the majority Hispanic town, enflaming the community and likely moving votes.

“It’s everywhere right now, what happened at Madison Square Garden,” said Westerband, who moved from Puerto Rico to the Lehigh Valley when she was six and lived on the island again after high school before moving back to Pennsylvania.

For many Puerto Ricans, the “garbage” comments were an October surprise that shocked and engaged them on the cusp of a big election where their votes could be decisive said Martinez, who owns a chain of five radio stations in Pennsylvania that are based in Allentown.

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Pennsylvania is the most hotly contested and consequential swing state and home to the fourth largest Puerto Rican population in the nation. With 19 Electoral College votes for grabs, the state has nearly 500,000 Puerto Ricans, according to Census data. President Joe Biden won the state by just 80,555 votes in 2020.

"Boricuas a votar Pennsylvania Wisconsin," a listener commented on the show's YouTube channel. "Boricuas let's vote in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, strength with that old convict who thinks he's God."

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New York State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico and now represents the Bronx, believes that Hinchcliffe’s comments will have negative effects on the Trump campaign.

He noted the remarks have spread like wildfire across the Puerto Rican community from New York to Florida to Pennsylvania — saying he’s received numerous texts and Facebook messages from Boricuas across the country.

“This is an important turning point,” he said. “It's definitely waking up a lot of folks. I would hope that this is the energy that we take into these last couple of days.”

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Trump campaigns tries to project calm as fallout grows

The Trump campaign disavowed Hinchcliffe’s comments, saying they don’t reflect the former president’s views.

Trump told ABC News that he doesn’t know the comedian and didn’t hear his remarks, and simply repeated that he didn't hear it when asked to share his thoughts on the Puerto Rico joke.

Trump didn’t address the controversy during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach Tuesday. He called the Madison Square Garden rally, where speakers made racist, misogynist and other controversial remarks, a “lovefest.”

"No president has done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” Trump said later in the day at a Pennsylvania forum, without directly mentioning Hinchcliffe’s remarks.

Prominent Hispanic Republicans joined the former president at his Allentown rally Tuesday. He asked Shadow U.S. Senator Zoraida Buxó of Puerto Rico to join him on the stage.

“The people of Puerto Rico trust you,” said Buxó, who is part of Puerto Rico's shadow delegation that advocates for statehood but does not have a vote, adding: “We need this man back in the White House.”

Trump declared that “nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do” and again asserted he’s done more for the island than any other president. He mentioned the two hurricanes that impacted Puerto Rico in 2017 during his presidency, and recounted sending a hospital ship to the island.

Trump’s response after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico was heavily criticized.

An inspector general’s report found that tensions within the Republican administration led to delays in disbursement of congressionally approved funds. The mayor of Puerto Rico's capital city and others slammed the former president for throwing paper towels into a crowd when he visited the island.

A Republican consultant close to the campaign said Trump’s team is projecting calm amid the fallout from the Madison Square Garden rally and telling allies to point to Trump adviser Danielle Alvarez’s statement saying, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

“I do think they wish it had never happened… it just takes up air time and oxygen,” the consultant said, adding, "in no world was this helpful.” The individual questioned whether it would have much impact, though, saying most people’s minds already are made up.

Another GOP consultant who has close ties to some of Trump’s campaign team said, “I don’t think they’re that concerned, it was one event and one news cycle.”

But in a close election where a few thousand votes could make the difference, the consultant said, “at the very least… it is an unnecessary headache that could potentially hurt them at the ballot box at a time when they can least afford it.”

'Island of garbage' comments are on the mind of swing voters

Westerband is very proud of her Puerto Rican roots and said it was hurtful to hear the island where she was born called “garbage.”

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and those born there are U.S. citizens but it often feels like the island is “treated like this extra piece that’s not a part” of the country, Westerband said.

The food truck owner doesn’t consider herself very political and doesn’t make up her mind until it’s time to vote. A Democrat, she voted for Biden in 2020 but also has supported Republicans.

“I’m not swinging either way yet, I’m not going to say which way I’m voting yet,” she said.

The “garbage” comments are definitely on her mind, though, and the minds of many people she knows, including customers at her two food trucks selling traditional Puerto Rican dishes.

“I know there’s a lot of change of mind and change of hearts,” she said.

Republican consultant Mike Madrid said there are around 33,500 Puerto Rican voters in Allentown alone.

"The racial slurs at Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden could cost him the election," said Madrid, author of "The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy."

Madrid added: "Even if it just moves Pennsylvania marginally, it's game over ? and it’s likely to move Latinos and Republicans there."

Martinez, the radio station owner, does a morning political segment that usually lasts for 20 to 30 minutes but went for more than an hour Monday because so many people wanted to talk about Hinchcliffe’s comments.

A Democrat, Martinez backs Kamala Harris and even was featured in one of her campaign ads. His mind already was made up. Many of his listeners reacting to the “garbage” comments were people who weren’t politically active, though, and now are getting off the sidelines.

“A lot of the comments that we have received, the calls that we have received have been people who didn't care, were not engaged,” Martinez said. “They had enough with all this talk about politics, and now all of a sudden their pride is hurt, and now they're going to vote.”

Martinez’s stations in Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading, Harrisburg, Lancaster and York reach about 250,000 Latinos, he said, most of them of Puerto Rican descent.

Guillermo Lopez was born in Bethlehem near Allentown after his father was recruited from Puerto Rico to work at the Bethlehem Steel mill. Lopez followed his father into the mill, working there for 27 years.

A former union leader, he has been involved in Democratic politics for decades and also is a leading figure in the region’s Hispanic community, serving as vice chair of The Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley.

Lopez has opposed Trump since the former president descended down the golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 to declare his first campaign.

“As a Latino, as a Puerto Rican, it's just been vile the whole time,” Lopez said of Trump’s tenure at the heights of American politics. “He started out with a dog whistle… but now they have a full bullhorn.”

Lopez is a vocal activist. But now, after Hinchcliffe’s comments, even people he knows who haven’t been vocal about politics are speaking out. He cited three different Facebook friends who posted that they weren’t going to vote but now are.

“Since this happened it’s like somebody put a bat signal out and they’re coming out of the woodwork,” he said.

Contributing: Rebecca Morin and David Jackson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump plays cleanup in Allentown as Puerto Rican voters swing away