Donald Trump on Tuesday called his rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden, an event marked by rude and racist remarks from several speakers, a “love fest.”
That’s a term the former president has also used to refer to the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Speaking to reporters and supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump said there has “never been a more beautiful event” than Sunday night’s rally in his hometown of New York.
“The love in that room. It was amazing,” he said. “It was like a love fest, a real love fest. And I was honored to be involved.”
This despite criticism from Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and from many watching — including Republicans — about racist comments made by speakers targeting Latinos, African Americans, Jews and Palestinians, along with sexist slurs directed at Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments, who said Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage,” sparked particular ire given the electoral importance of Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania and other key states. The Trump campaign took the unusual step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico joke, but not from other comments.
Puerto Rico Republican Party Chairman Angel Cintron said Hinchcliffe’s comment was a “poor attempt at comedy … shameful, ignorant and totally reprehensible.”
Trump used the event at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday to criticize Harris’ record on the border and the economy, saying that “on issue after issue, she broke it” and “I’m going to fix it and I’m going to fix it very quickly.”
With the election a week away, some Trump allies have expressed alarm that the event, which was meant to highlight his closing message, has instead served as a distraction, highlighting voters’ concerns about his rhetoric and penchant for controversy in the final stretch of the race.
Speaking before the event to ABC News, Trump said he did not know the comedian who delivered the most egregious insults, but he also did not denounce the comments.
“I don’t know him, somebody put him there. I don’t know who he is,” he said, according to the network, insisting he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. But, when asked what he thought of them, Trump “did not take the opportunity to denounce them, repeating that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.
Trump is scheduled to campaign later Tuesday in Pennsylvania, a state where the population of Latino eligible voters has tripled since the 2000s, from 206,000 to 620,000 in 2023, according to census data. More than half of those are Puerto Rican eligible voters.
He will also hold a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which has a large Hispanic population, on Tuesday night.
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