On Sunday, Donald Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden that included appearances from Hulk Hogan and Elon Musk. To kick things off, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe attempted to warm up the crowd. Hinchcliffe, who hosts a weekly live podcast called Kill Tony and is a longtime protégé of Joe Rogan, crammed an impressive variety of offensive jokes into his set, including a quip that Travis Kelce “might be the next O.J. Simpson” and a bit where he claimed to have “carved watermelons” at a Halloween party with a Black audience member.
During a particularly nasty moment, Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.” The line elicited groans from the audience, prompting Hinchcliffe to complain that he wasn’t used to going onstage after the national anthem and this “isn’t exactly a perfect comedy setup.”
In the wake of the rally, Hinchcliffe is facing backlash for the Puerto Rico joke from pretty much everyone. A handful of celebrities, including Ricky Martin, Luis Fonsi, Spike Lee, and Rosie Perez, posted angry reactions to the clip on their Instagram Stories on Sunday. That day, seemingly in response to the joke, Jennifer Lopez and Bad Bunny both reposted a video from Kamala Harris’s campaign in which Harris condemns Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria and talks about her plan to revitalize Puerto Rico’s economy and modernize the island’s energy grid. Bad Bunny followed up his post with an eight-minute video on Tuesday, which he captioned “garbage” in an apparent reference to Hinchcliffe’s joke. The video, which originally played during Bad Bunny’s 2021 concert, P FKN R, highlighted a vast expanse of Puerto Rican history and culture, honoring athletes, entertainers, and politicians in a love letter to the island.
Tim Walz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also discussed Hinchcliffe’s joke during a Twitch streaming session in which they played Madden and talked about politics and culture. “The things they do in Puerto Rico are a testing ground for the policies and the horrors that they unveil in working-class communities across the United States,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding, “What is trash is people actually thinking of other human beings that way.”
The fallout continued throughout the week. While speaking at the WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards on Tuesday, Aubrey Plaza said, “I just wanted to very quickly respond to the racist joke that was made at that Trump rally about Puerto Rico, where most of my family is from. Thankfully, my sweet abuelita wasn’t here to hear that disgusting remark, but if she was alive today, I think she would say, ‘Tony Hinchcliffe, go fuck yourself.’”
Speaking with Variety during a screening of Emilia Pérez Tuesday night, Selena Gomez also referenced Hinchcliffe’s set, noting that she “strongly disagreed with any comments that were made recently” and that she wants to “stand by my people.”
On Wednesday, Puerto Rican artist Nicky Jam, who previously endorsed Trump and appeared onstage at a Las Vegas rally in September in a “Make America Great Again” hat, rescinded his support. In a video, he explained that he thought the candidate was “best for the economy in the United States where a lot of Latinos live, a lot of immigrants who are suffering because of the economy,” per CNN’s translation. “Never in my life did I think that one month later there would be a comedian who would criticize my country and speak poorly of my country,” he said, “and for that I withdraw my support of Donald Trump. Puerto Rico should be respected.”
In a Wednesday episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Hinchcliffe’s colleague Rogan said the joke “goes well” when Hinchcliffe does it at comedy clubs (Hinchcliffe often films his podcast at Rogan’s club, Comedy Mothership). Rogan said he’s warned Hinchcliffe that doing the bit will “get you stabbed” and would have advised him against making it at a political rally.
Even Republican politicians are distancing themselves from Hinchcliffe’s brand of controversial humor. Florida representative María Elvira Salazar wrote on X that she was “disgusted” by his “racist comment,” adding that “this rhetoric does not reflect GOP values.” Her colleague, Florida senator Rick Scott, added that it “bombed for a reason. It’s not funny and it’s not true.” Even the Trump campaign itself seemed to recognize the line was a step too far — a senior campaign adviser told reporters in a statement that Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
When ABC News asked Trump about about Hinchcliffe’s joke, he claimed he hadn’t heard the comments at all and said of the comedian, “I don’t know him; someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is.” He repeated a similar line in a later interview with Sean Hannity, where he also claimed to have “really great relationships with people from Puerto Rico. Every time I go outside, I see somebody from Puerto Rico. They give me a hug and a kiss.” He claimed Hinchcliffe hadn’t been vetted by his team and has “nothing to do with the party,” eventually adding, “Probably he shouldn’t have been there.”
This post has been updated.