Trump's aggressive rally at Madison Square Garden is sparking fears among Puerto Rican voters that the message could be overshadowed and have negative consequences

CNN
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The violent and vulgar rhetoric at Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday has sparked recriminations among the former president's inner circle and deep concern that his message has once again been eclipsed by controversy.

Several of Trump's allies expressed dismay at the language used by speakers at the event in New York City, particularly an inappropriate joke about Puerto Rico by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe that opened the event and set the tone for an evening of disparaging and divisive remarks.

“I'm angry,” said a source close to the former president, noting that she was stunned that the remarks were not thoroughly vetted before the speakers took the stage.

Throughout Sunday afternoon and evening, a parade of speakers thrilled the crowd at Trump's pre-election MAGA celebration, adopting the Republican candidate's anything-goes tone. Some made racist comments about Latinos and black Americans; others launched misogynistic attacks against Trump's past and present political opponents.

Many of these remarks appeared to have been read from teleprompters, suggesting that they had been approved by someone on the event's planning team. A campaign adviser told CNN that speeches had to be pre-screened and was unsure how the overtly racist language ended up on stage. Another senior aide said the speeches had been reviewed but insisted the more offensive remarks were ad-libbed and not included in a campaign outline.

On Monday, there were still disputes within the campaign over who approved Hinchcliffe's sentence, which was full of racist phrases. An adviser said no one had fully vetted Hinchcliffe's comments. Another said the campaign had not been provided with a draft containing some of the comedian's more lewd jokes, but he called one that called Vice President Kamala Harris a “cunt” “in poor taste” and removed it from the set.

The program departed sharply from the careful staging of this summer's Republican National Convention, where every speech was carefully scrutinized and tightly choreographed. During the convention, campaign advisers routinely edited and in some cases rewrote invited speakers' remarks, with minimal room for improvisation. Campaign aides admitted to CNN that the level of preparation carried out at the convention in Milwaukee was not applied to Sunday's rally.

Since the RNC in July, a period marked by an extraordinary series of extraordinary events – including Harris replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket – Trump's advisers have struggled to keep him focused and his public appearances have become increasingly erratic the further he deviates from the message. Some allies have at times publicly questioned whether the former president is striking the right tone to win over the voters needed to carry out elections in battleground states.

Sunday began with Republicans optimistic that Trump's campaign was at least hitting the right note with a new ad that looked to the prospect of a second Trump presidency.

“President Trump is fighting for you. His strength protected us. Trump cut taxes for families. Prices were lower and the border was secure. Now President Trump can do it again, and we face a new golden age of American success for citizens of all races, religions, colors and creeds,” a narrator declared.

Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist and political commentator for CNN, praised the ad as a “perfect closing argument” for Trump's campaign. But by 8 p.m., any hopes that Trump would build on that message at Madison Square Garden were gone.

Still, the offensive comments that evening were not entirely out of place in the context of a Trump rally where the use of crude slogans, explicit Kid Rock anthems and offensive nicknames for political opponents were the norm. Many of his supporters express themselves through harsh messages on T-shirts. Trump himself has often adopted nativist language and has increasingly used profanity in his speeches.

For nearly a decade, Trump has suffered — if not thrived — from the lack of a filter that defines his political brand, leaving Democrats with no clear path to exploit it in the final stages of the race. Similarly, Future Forward, the leading super PAC supporting Harris' presidential campaign, recently warned that Democrats risk diluting their ultimate message by spending time calling Trump a fascist.

Still, the timing of Sunday's event — so close to Election Day and against a high-profile New York backdrop — has sparked a new wave of concern among Republicans.

The controversy largely revolves around Hinchcliffe's joke about Puerto Rico, which he called a “floating island of garbage.” A handful of Republicans, some with close ties to Trump, issued statements condemning the remarks. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the state with the largest Puerto Rican population, described the comments as “neither funny nor true.” Rep. Byron Donalds, also from Florida, said, “No one agreed with it.”

Allies expressed concern that the remarks could have political repercussions, especially given the growing influence of Puerto Ricans in the battleground states, of which about half a million people live in Pennsylvania alone. Sources close to the former president confirmed that a number of calls were made to campaign officials emphasizing the need to respond to the comments.

Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, a New York Republican and Puerto Rican facing one of the country's toughest re-election fights, wrote on X: “The only thing 'trash' was a bad comedy set.”

“Stay informed,” D’Esposito advised.

The Trump campaign, which generally does not apologize for inflammatory statements, immediately released a statement Sunday evening distancing itself from Hinchcliffe's comments.

“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” said campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez.

Trump's distancing from Hinchcliffe did not extend to the comedian's other inflammatory statements – including a stereotype about black people and watermelons and a crude claim about the sex lives of Latino immigrants. Other speakers who were condemned also went unrecognized on the campaign trail, such as one who called Harris “the devil” and “the Antichrist.”

As of Monday, there were no plans for Trump to address the comments at his upcoming appearances. The former president held an event in Georgia on Monday and travels to Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

Democrats were quick to capitalize on the outwardly offensive narrative on Sunday. After the rally, Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny signaled his support for Harris to his 45 million social media followers, which quickly promoted her campaign.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, called Trump's event at Madison Square Garden a “hate rally” and suggested the campaign was in damage control over Hinchcliffe's comments.

“They're just realizing that they may have made a big mistake by saying out loud what they're thinking,” she told MSNBC on Monday.

However, it remains to be seen whether Trump will face electoral consequences for his comments denigrating Puerto Rico. Trump himself once called the territory “one of the most corrupt places in the world.” He accused local officials there of inflating the death toll from Hurricane Maria – an estimated 3,000 – to make him look bad.

Democrats tried to mobilize Puerto Ricans in some battlegrounds in 2020 by attacking Trump's handling of the response to Maria. In Spanish-language ads and billboards in Florida, Trump threw paper towels to survivors who lost their homes, emphasizing his previous criticism of the island. In Osceola County, where the population surged after Maria and one in three voters identified as Puerto Rican, Democrats recruited survivors of the storm to reach out to other Puerto Ricans against Trump.

In the end, Trump won in Florida and in Osceola County his performance improved by 7 points.