By Patricia Mazzei
Carmen Yulín Cruz’s phone began buzzing on Sunday while she was at the airport in Connecticut, awaiting a flight to Puerto Rico. A stand-up comedian at former President Donald Trump’s rally in New York referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
As clips of the comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, started appearing on airport screens, fellow Puerto Ricans waiting for their flight began to react, Cruz recounted.
“People were saying to me, ‘Hey, Yulín, what is this guy talking about?’ — but using much more vivid language,” Cruz, the ex-mayor of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, remarked on Monday. “I responded: ‘Well, this isn’t new. Let’s not be shocked.’”
During his presidency, Trump clashed fiercely with Cruz and other leaders from Puerto Rico, resisting the allocation of billions in aid following the territory’s devastation by consecutive hurricanes in 2017. He made volatile remarks on social media and threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans during a memorable visit that many still recount. He even privately speculated whether the United States could sell the island.
In 2019, Trump labeled local officials as “grossly incompetent.” A year later, while campaigning for re-election, he attempted to depict himself as the “best thing that ever happened” to Puerto Rico. The Republican Party platform has abandoned its previous support for Puerto Rican statehood, a viewpoint it had held before Trump’s negative relations with the island developed.
Although his campaign distanced itself from Hinchcliffe’s joke, asserting it didn’t represent Trump’s views, Trump had yet to issue an apology as of press time Tuesday.
“You must understand how painful this is in the light of the disastrous and lethal response to Hurricane Maria,” stated Rep. Darren Soto, a Florida Democrat with Puerto Rican heritage. “This is also evidently discrimination.”
Over the years, Trump has evaluated Puerto Rico primarily through a political lens, seemingly exasperated by a territory that has needed extensive federal support to recover from economic distress, hurricanes, and earthquakes.
The incident on Sunday spurred widespread outrage in Puerto Rico and throughout its extensive diaspora, including politicians and celebrities like Bad Bunny. Archbishop Roberto O. González Nieves of San Juan penned an open letter to Trump on Monday.
“An apology from your campaign is insufficient,” the archbishop asserted. “It is crucial that you personally apologize for these remarks.”
Also on Monday, the chair of Puerto Rico’s Republican Party announced he would withdraw his support for Trump unless he issued an apology.
Some Puerto Ricans drew comparisons between the campaign’s provision of a platform for Hinchcliffe to make racist jokes and Trump’s propagation of false claims, alongside his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, regarding Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio, purportedly stealing and consuming pets.
“It’s just another day in Trump’s world,” Marcos Vilar, a Puerto Rican who serves as the executive director of Alianza for Progress, a Latino advocacy organization in Florida, remarked at a news conference on Monday in Kissimmee, a city with a large Puerto Rican population south of Orlando.
Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and although the 3.2 million residing on the island cannot vote for president, the roughly 5.8 million living in U.S. states can. They generally lean Democratic, but their turnout often remains relatively low compared to their population size. In recent elections, some Puerto Ricans have leaned towards Republicans, reflecting a broader trend among Hispanic voters.
Bob Cortes, a Puerto Rican Republican and former state representative from Central Florida, indicated he could envision Puerto Rican voters who were previously undecided in the presidential election being influenced by Sunday’s incident. Cortes expressed his “disappointment” over the event but maintained his support for Trump.
“Many individuals complain about the withholding of funds” by Trump after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017, Cortes noted. “He withheld some funds to hold those misusing the funds in Puerto Rico accountable.”
The recovery in Puerto Rico has progressed much more slowly than in states like Florida and Texas, which also faced disasters in 2017, largely due to the Trump administration imposing restrictions on Puerto Rican aid that did not affect other regions. Congress allocated $20 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for Puerto Rico post-Maria; by the time President Joe Biden took office and released additional funds, only $138 million had been utilized.
Puerto Ricans acknowledge they have had some inadequate elected officials. Federal authorities have secured various public corruption convictions in recent years against legislators and mayors.
However, Puerto Ricans do not easily tolerate mockery. Governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, a Democrat who led during Hurricane Maria, was compelled to resign in 2019 after weeks of protests. The protests erupted following leaked messages from a private group chat that displayed Rosselló and his male associates mocking women, LGBTQ+ individuals, overweight individuals, political rivals, and even some supporters.
“There is a significant mistrust of the government as a whole, stemming from Puerto Rico,” Cortes remarked.
Cruz, the former mayor of San Juan and a Democrat, stated that Hinchcliffe’s comment at the rally made her heart sink. She recalled moments from the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. After the storm, Trump labeled Cruz as “nasty,” which elevated her status as a critic of Trump.
Cruz, like many Puerto Ricans, holds the Trump administration partly responsible for the countless deaths on the island post-Maria, many due to inadequate power and medical assistance.
“Three thousand Puerto Ricans perished because he weaponized the aid,” she stated. “He didn’t believe our lives mattered, and this was due to his failure to perform his duties.”
“And it was hurtful,” she mentioned about once more hearing Puerto Ricans being insulted, “because you think, ‘My God, it’s not like this person hasn’t shown who he is to the world.’”
