Did trump call puerto rico garbage
Executive summary
No — the available reporting shows that a comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, told a crowd at a Trump rally that “Puerto Rico” was “a floating island of garbage,” not that Donald Trump himself uttered that line; the Trump campaign and some Republican allies quickly tried to distance the campaign from Hinchcliffe’s remarks while Trump publicly shrugged at the backlash [1] [2] [3].
1. The remark and who actually said it
At a Madison Square Garden event where Donald Trump later appeared, comic Tony Hinchcliffe opened with a routine that included the line “there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now — I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” a remark reported verbatim across major outlets and attributed to Hinchcliffe, not to Trump himself [2] [1] [4].
2. Immediate response from the Trump campaign and the candidate
Within hours the Trump campaign issued a rare distancing statement saying Hinchcliffe’s “joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” and when pressed later Trump said he did not know who the comedian was and declined to offer an apology while calling the rally a “lovefest,” which many outlets interpreted as shrugging off the controversy [3] [5] [6].
3. How the comment was framed in reporting and its political effect
News organizations framed the gag as part of a broader chorus of inflammatory remarks at the rally and emphasized the political stakes given Puerto Ricans’ role in swing-state politics; outlets noted the comment drew condemnation from Democrats, some Republicans and Puerto Rican leaders and artists, making it a campaign flashpoint in the closing days before the election [7] [8] [4].
4. Disputes over vetting and context
Reports diverge on how much the campaign knew: the BBC cited a CBS source saying campaign staff vetted Hinchcliffe’s list of jokes but that some offensive lines were ad-libbed, which the campaign denies in its distancing statement; this unresolved point — whether the comment was screened or spontaneous — is central to arguments about responsibility and platforming [2] [1].
5. Broader reactions and the line between speaker and host responsibility
Puerto Rican officials, entertainers and some members of Congress condemned the quip as racist and demanded a stronger rebuke, while others argued that a single comic’s joke should not be conflated with the candidate’s views — a split that reflects wider debates about how much campaigns are accountable for acts on their stages and how political opponents can use such incidents to mobilize voters [4] [1] [9].
6. Conclusion — answering the question directly
In plain terms, the reporting shows Donald Trump did not himself say “Puerto Rico is garbage”; the insult came from an opening comedian at his rally and was widely reported and condemned, the campaign issued a distancing statement, and Trump’s subsequent public posture was to downplay the uproar rather than to apologize — leaving political and ethical questions about responsibility, vetting and the campaign’s tolerance for inflammatory speakers [2] [1] [3].