Donald J. Trump and his allies are bullish about his chances of victory in the final days of the 2024 campaign. But the former president and his team are worried, both publicly and privately, that their opponents’ characterizations of him as a racist and fascist could rub off on sections of the electorate.
At Madison Square Garden in New York City, Mr. That concern was evident after Trump’s six-hour event, where Sunday’s tirade included an opening act by a comedian known for his history of racist jokes mocking Puerto Rico as a “floating island.” Garbage” and talked about black people carving watermelons.
The backlash among Puerto Rican celebrities and artists was immediate across social media, prompting the Trump campaign to issue a rare defensive statement distancing itself from the 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.
Daniel 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 is generally to never apologize, never admit fault, and try to ignore controversy. Ms. Alvarez’s statement was a rare break from that practice, reflecting renewed concern that Mr. Trump risks reminding undecided voters of the darkest days of his political movement in the final stages of the 2024 race.
Mr. Some of Trump’s Republican allies appeared to have similar misgivings, criticizing the joke and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.
David Urban, an informal Trump adviser with longstanding ties to Pennsylvania, which has a large Puerto Rican electorate, posted on X: “He’s funny and unfortunately offended a lot of our friends from Puerto Rico,” adding the hashtag “#TrumpLovesPR.”
Pushback also came from officials in Florida, where Mr. Trump’s campaign and some of his advisers have spent their careers.
Senator Rick Scott of Florida posted on X on Sunday: “It’s not funny and it’s not true.” Representative Maria Elvira Salazar of South Florida, Mr. He condemned Hinchcliffe’s comments, saying they were “disgusting” and did not reflect the values of the Republican Party.
“Puerto Rico is not garbage, it’s home to fellow Americans who have made enormous contributions to our country,” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida posted on X on Monday. But, “Those are not Trump’s words. They were humored by an insulting comic that offended.
Beyond the rally setback, Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, retired four-star Marine General John F. Kelly, Mr. He has brought new attention to Trump’s past comments and behavior. He described his former boss as a fascist and Mr.
On Monday night at the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, Mr. Trump exaggerated and misrepresented the criticism, falsely claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris said anyone who didn’t vote for him was “a Nazi.” He talked about his father, Fred Trump, whose parents were German, and said his father told him, “Never use the word Nazi. Never use that word,” and “Never use the word Hitler.”
Mr. Biden accused President Biden of running a “Gestapo administration.” Trump, a reference to Nazi Germany’s secret police, said, “I’m not a Nazi. I’m against a Nazi. She’s a fascist, right? She’s a fascist,” he said at a rally on Monday.
Mr. Asked about concerns that attacks on Trump might sink in with voters, Mr. Carolyn Leavitt, Trump’s spokeswoman, did not respond to questions. Instead, he said, “President Trump has more support from the Hispanic American community than any Republican in recent history because of his plans to cut taxes, stop inflation and stop the rise of illegal immigrants at the southern border.”
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s partner dismissed any concerns. “It was probably a stupid, racist joke, as you said,” he told reporters on Monday. “Maybe not. I haven’t seen it. But,” he added, “we need to stop being so offended by every little thing in America.”
Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who specializes in mobilizing Latino voters, publicly asked the PAC on Sunday for a small donation of $30,000 so he could send a video of offensive comments to Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania.
On Monday morning, he reached his goal and sent 250,000 texts with 15 seconds of the comedian’s set disparaging the island.
“Puerto Ricans have a unique relationship to their homeland,” said Mr. Rocha said. “When you hit the island, it cuts very deep with the community.”
Ms. Harris told reporters Monday morning at the Joint Base Andrews that Mr. Trump’s rally provided fresh evidence of the former president’s divisiveness. Mr. Trump, he said, “fans love to fuel hate and division, and that’s why people are tired of him.”
Ms. Harris, the Democratic nominee, is preparing to deliver a speech on the Ellipse near the White House as the final argument of her three-month campaign after inducting President Biden. Jan. 6, 2021, calling on Congress to reject President Biden’s Electoral College votes, and Mr. It’s the same place where Trump gave a speech to his supporters. Hundreds of those supporters then marched to the Capitol and violently disrupted the certification.
Mr. Trump’s current expanded orbit of longtime political veterans, low-vote elected officials and activists embraces the New Right view that the country is in an existential war at home and justifies their means of victory.
Most of Trump’s team said Mr. The attacks on Trump, and the fight over whether he is a racist hideout, are already known by voters as Mr. .
His advisers and close allies are privately amazed that nothing has so far appeared politically damaging to Mr Trump, giving many a sense of invincibility about what he can get away with. In a fragmented media environment where non-traditional outlets wield enormous influence, they feel such headlines and stories matter less than they once did.
Some of them considered Sunday’s rally a victory, Mr. Trump has argued that filling an arena in deep blue Manhattan proved his political strength to voters across the country.
But Mr. Some of Trump’s own events included the blatant racism and misogyny he performed at the Madison Square Garden rally.
“She’s a fake — I’m not here to invalidate her — she’s a fake, a fraud, she’s a pretender,” entrepreneur and Internet personality Grant Cardone told the crowd. “She and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.”
And Mr. Some of Trump’s own closest allies said the event’s headlines came at a troubling moment when a small group of impressionable voters across the country were heading to the polls and worried that people were taking an unnecessary risk. Many states are already voting during early voting.
There are other moments where the Trump team says it has concerns.
Mr. Trump’s allies, voters Mr. While often publicly insisting that he has tuned out Trump’s warnings about authoritarianism, Mr. There were clear signs that the Trump campaign was concerned about Kelly’s statements. Mr. Mr. Trump and others who worked for him. Kelly has denied the allegations.
Ahead of the Madison Square Garden rally, Trump’s team met Mr. Rallying in full force to repudiate Kelly — they fear the attacks could leave about five percent of voters who rate themselves undecided.
After Ms. Harris called Mr. Trump a fascist, her campaign released a video of Holocaust survivor Jerry Wardsky, who rejected comparing Mr. Trump to Hitler and demanded that Ms. Harris apologize. At Madison Square Garden Mr. At Trump’s rally, Mr. Wardsky was also in attendance, where several speakers directly tackled accusations of his characterization.
Steve Wittkoff, a real estate developer and longtime friend, greeted Mr. Trump said he respected all faiths and said “extremist allegations, they couldn’t be further from the truth.”
New York talk radio host Sid Rosenberg, Hillary Clinton Mr. He responded by comparing Trump’s event to a pro-Hitler rally in 1939. Mr. Rosenberg joked. “It’s out of character for me to speak at a Nazi rally. Only in Israel.” While calling Democrats “Sew haters,” Mr. A vote for Trump, he said, is a vote for an administration that “cares about the Jewish people.” Hulk Hogan, more simply, looked at the crowd and said, “I don’t see any nostrils in here.”
Noting that Jews, Muslims and Catholics are all rallying behind him, Mr. “The Republican Party has become a really inclusive party,” he said.
In a joint statement issued days before the rally by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell, Mr. Perhaps most notably, she called on Ms. Harris to stop calling Trump a fascist. Mr. It accused Trump of stoking political tensions by ignoring his history of demonizing his own opponents.
In that report Mr. McConnell’s presence is particularly notable.
Mr. Despite his endorsement of Trump months ago, Mr. McConnell told his biographer Michael Tackett that he hoped the former president would “pay a price” for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Mr. According to Tackett’s biography, Mr. McConnell called Mr Trump “erratic” and said the US electorate had voted wisely in removing him from office. Regarding January 6, Mr. He also said he thought Trump’s actions were “as close to an impeachable crime as you can imagine,” though he did not vote to convict him in an impeachment trial and said the criminal justice system would. A place to address it.
Shane Goldmaker Contributed report.
