Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made few people laugh during a racist speech at Madison Square Garden where he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and leaned on other racist tropes during the Trump campaign rally.
His set, which came before Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke, has to critics come to symbolize the tropes of racism and hate that have marked the MAGA movement and Trump’s 2024 campaign.
But even Trump supporters were doing damage control as Hinchcliffe’s set went viral — in a bad way.
Hinchcliffe, 40, was one of three dozen speakers at the rally, but stood out as one of the most offensive who drew groans from the crowd and backlash from both sides of the political aisle. Trump advisor Peter Navarro called Hinchcliffe “the biggest, stupidest a— that ever came down the comedy pike,” according to reporting from Politico.
Previously, Hinchcliffe appeared on Tom Brady’s Netflix comedy roast. Currently, he hosts the “Kill Tony” podcast, where he invites rising comedians to audition on his podcast. He boasts nearly 2 million YouTube subscribers and this May the podcast hosted a comedy show at Kia Forum as part of the Netflix Is a Joke festival.
During his 12-minute set, Hinchcliffe made racist comments about Mexicans crossing the border and jokes about Jewish and Black people that used antisemitic and racist tropes.
“I don’t know if you 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,” he said to groans from the crowd. His jokes repeatedly fell flat for the rally goers, who voiced their frustration with his material.
“This is a groaning little morning crowd, huh?” Hinchcliffe said in response as he continued his speech that dipped into praise for Trump.
While he might have touted his love for the former president, the Trump campaign distanced itself from the firestorm following Hinchcliffe’s set.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” campaign advisor Danielle Alvarez told Fox News in statement about the comment made about Puerto Rico.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott wrote in a social media post on X that Hinchcliffe’s joke was “not funny and not true.”
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, whose mother was born in Puerto Rico, called Hinchcliffe’s comments “super upsetting.”
“I need people to understand that when you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico ‘floating garbage,’ know that that’s what they think about you,” she said during a video call with Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz,
Walz reminded viewers that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and its people pay taxes and serve in the military.
“There are hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans in battleground states that need to send them a message,” he said, referring to the Republican Party.
A spokesperson for Hinchcliffe could not be immediately reached for comment about the backlash. He took to social media to respond to Walz and Ocasio-Cortez.
“These people have no sense of humor,” he wrote in an X post. “Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone…watch the whole set.”
Outrage from the Puerto Rican community was loud and prompted many to show their support for the Harris campaign.
Singer Ricky Martin wrote in an Instagram post over Hinchcliffe’s speech, “Esto es lo que piensan de nosotros” or “This is what they think of us.”
Jennifer Lopez shared multiple images from the Harris campaign’s policy platform for Puerto Rico.
Bad Bunny reshared videos on his Instagram story of Kamala Harris calling out the Trump administration’s lack of response to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017.
“I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader,” Harris said. “He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes, and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults.”
Nate Silver, the elections forecasting guru, made the case that the rally and Trump’s domination of the headlines might even help Harris — especially when the headlines are bad. “There’s some initial evidence that the rally is drawing broader attention: today and yesterday are the top days of Google search traffic for Trump since the second assassination attempt against him in September,” he wrote on his Substack, Silver Bulletin.
