After Rally Backlash, the Trump Team Combats Racist and Fascist Attacks
Donald J.Trump and his allies are full of bravado over his chances of victory in the closing days of the 2024 campaign.
But there are signs, publicly and privately, that the former president and his team are worried that their opponents’ descriptions of him as a racist and a fascist may be breaking through to segments of voters.That anxiety was clear after Mr.Trump’s six-hour event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where the inflammatory speeches on Sunday included an opening act by a comedian known for a history of racist jokes who derided Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” and talked about Black people carving watermelons.The backlash among Puerto Rican celebrities and performers was instantaneous across social media, prompting the Trump campaign to issue a rare defensive statement distancing themselves from offensive comments.
In a tight race, any constituency could be decisive and the sizable Puerto Rican community in the battleground state of Pennsylvania was on the minds of Trump allies.Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement that the Puerto Rico joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” The Trump ethos has generally been to never apologize, never admit error and try to ignore controversy.Ms.
Alvarez’s statement was a rare break from that tradition, reflecting a new concern that Mr.Trump risks reminding undecided voters of the dark tenor of his political movement in the closing stage of the 2024 race.Some of Mr.
Trump’s Republican allies, seeming to harbor similar misgivings, were quick to criticize the joke and the comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, who made it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verif...