Former President Donald Trump stepped up to the podium at his Mar-a-Lago residence Tuesday more than an hour late and delivered a speech without one mention of Puerto Rico after a comic insulted the island territory during Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York.
On Sunday, shock comic Tony Hinchcliffe delivered what he has defended as a joke: “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Backlash to the derogatory remark has been bipartisan and widespread, with even the archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, demanding a personal apology from Trump.
But Trump, speaking for about an hour from his Florida resort on Tuesday, focused almost entirely on migrants, repeating the same false or misleading claims he makes frequently on the campaign trail.
He attacked Vice President Kamala Harris by claiming she has “obliterated our borders,” “decimated the middle class” and created “a fake economy.”
As he wrapped up, Trump mocked the comparisons his Madison Square Garden event has drawn to a pro-Nazi rally held at a previous version of the venue in 1939.
“They started to say, ‘Well, in 1939, the Nazis used Madison Square Garden,’” Trump said, prompting supporters in attendance to boo.
“And I’ll tell you right now, nobody’s ever had love like that. That was love in the room, and it was love for our country,” he said.
“It was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest,” Trump said.
Trump similarly failed to address the Puerto Rico controversy at a roundtable discussion in Pennsylvania later in the day, although he accepted a compliment from a Puerto Rican attendee who assured him that the island “loves” him.
“Thank you,” Trump responded. “I know it very well, and we helped you through a lot of bad storms. We had a lot of really bad ones. … I think no president’s done more for Puerto Rico than I have.”
Hinchcliffe’s remark prompted several high-profile Puerto Rican entertainers, including rapper Bad Bunny, to throw their support behind Harris in the minutes and hours afterward.
Trump distanced himself earlier on Tuesday from the comedian.
“I don’t know him, someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump told ABC News reporter Rachel Scott.
His campaign has also put out a statement, saying, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
But that wasn’t enough for the archbishop of San Juan, Roberto O Gonzalez Nieves, or Angel Cintrón, the chair of Puerto Rico’s Republican Party, who also called for an apology.
“I enjoy a good joke,” the archbishop said. “However, humour has its limits. It should not insult or denigrate the dignity and sacredness of people. Hinchcliffe’s remarks do not only provoke sinister laughter but hatred.”
“It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologise,” the archbishop added. “It is important that you, personally, apologise for these comments.”
With hundreds of thousands of people of Puerto Rican descent living in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania alone, the controversy could come back to haunt Trump at the ballot box.