By james art A little more than a week before Election Day, speakers called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash,” called Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris “the devil” and said the woman vying to become the first black woman president had launched a career you are like a prostitute
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but right now there is literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” said Tony Hinchcliffe, a stand-up comic whose set also included lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews and blacks, all key constituencies in the election just nine days away.
His joke was immediately criticized by Ms. Harris’s campaign as she competes with Mr. Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states.
Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny supported Ms. Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe’s appearance.
The usually aggressive Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Mr. Hinchcliffe. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Daniel Alvarez said in a statement.
But other speakers also made inflammatory comments.
Mr Trump’s childhood friend David Rehm called Ms Harris the “Antichrist” and “the devil”. Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris “and her pimps are going to destroy our country.”
The marquee event echoed the former president’s tone throughout his third White House campaign.
Although he has refrained from doing so, Mr Trump himself has often engaged in offensive and personal remarks against Ms Harris, in recent weeks questioning her mental stability and intelligence, as well as calling her “lazy”, a longtime racist a trope used against blacks.
The event was a surreal spectacle that included former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Congressman Byron Donalds, fellow Republican Elise Stefanik and an artist , who painted a picture of Mr. Trump hugging the Empire State Building.
That was all before Mr Trump took the stage, more than two hours late.
After being introduced by his wife Melania Trump in a rare public appearance, the former president began by asking the same questions he has asked at the start of every recent rally: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The crowd responded with an emphatic “No!”
Mr Trump said on Sunday he had added a new proposal to his list of tax cuts aimed at winning over older people and blue-collar workers, which already includes promises to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and overtime pay : Tax credit for carers.
It comes after Ms Harris spoke of the “sandwich generation” of adults who care for aging parents while raising their children.
Ms. Harris proposed federal funding to cover the cost of home care for older Americans.
Mr Trump otherwise repeated familiar lines on foreign policy and immigration, calling for the death penalty for any migrant who kills a US citizen and saying the day he took office “the migrant invasion of our country ends”. .
As Mr. Trump’s remarks came out after an hour, some of the crowd began to stream out of the hall.
The world’s richest man, Tesla CEO and tech mogul Elon Musk, was an important part of Trump’s closing campaign message.
Mr Musk, who also owns social media platform X, formerly Twitter, introduced the former president’s wife on stage in New York as Mr Trump praised Mr Musk as a “genius” and “special”.