It was supposed to be a victory lap. Late October 2024, Madison Square Garden, the "World's Most Famous Arena." Donald Trump was closing out his campaign with a massive, star-studded rally in the heart of New York City. Then, a comedian named Tony Hinchcliffe took the stage for a warm-up set and dropped a line that basically set the internet on fire for the next ten days.
"There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now," Hinchcliffe told the crowd. "I think it’s called Puerto Rico."
The joke didn't just land flat; it felt like a grenade. Within hours, "Puerto Rico garbage" was the top trending topic across every social platform. If you were following the news in those final weeks before the 2024 election, you couldn't escape it. But beneath the viral clips and the outrage, there’s a much weirder, more complicated story about how a single "roast" joke nearly derailed a campaign—and then somehow didn't.
The Moment Everything Went Sideways
Tony Hinchcliffe isn't a political pundit. He's a roast comic known for the podcast Kill Tony. His whole brand is being offensive. But there's a big difference between a dark comedy club in Austin and a televised presidential rally a week before Election Day.
When he made the "island of garbage" comment, the reaction in the room was a mix of scattered laughter and audible groans. You could almost feel the campaign staffers backstage reaching for their phones. It wasn't just the Puerto Rico comment, either. Hinchcliffe leaned into stereotypes about Latinos "making babies," made a "carving watermelons" joke involving Black people, and poked at Jewish and Palestinian groups.
Honestly, it was a mess.
Democratic leaders jumped on it instantly. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Governor Tim Walz were actually on a Twitch stream together when the clip went viral. AOC, who is of Puerto Rican descent, called it "super-upsetting." The Harris campaign smelled blood in the water. They immediately turned the clip into a series of digital ads targeting the 500,000+ Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania—a state that everyone knew would decide the whole election.
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The Celebrities Weigh In
This wasn't just a political spat. It became a cultural moment. Within hours of the rally, some of the biggest names in the world—people who usually stay out of the mud—started posting.
- Bad Bunny: The global superstar shared a video of Kamala Harris talking about Puerto Rico to his 45 million Instagram followers.
- Jennifer Lopez: She posted about her heritage and later appeared at a Harris rally.
- Ricky Martin: He shared the Hinchcliffe clip with a simple caption: "This is what they think of us."
For a moment, it looked like the "October Surprise" had finally arrived, and it was a self-inflicted wound.
Damage Control and the "Love Fest"
The Trump campaign knew they had a problem. In a rare move, senior advisor Danielle Alvarez released a statement saying, "This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign."
But Trump himself took a different tack. When asked about it later, he told ABC News he didn't know Hinchcliffe and hadn't heard the joke. At a Mar-a-Lago press conference, he called the Madison Square Garden event an "absolute love fest." He doubled down on his support for Latinos, claiming "nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do."
Meanwhile, Hinchcliffe wasn't apologizing. He took to X (formerly Twitter) to tell his critics they "have no sense of humor" and that the joke was "taken out of context." He argued that he's a comedian and that's just what he does.
The Biden "Garbage" Gaffe: A Twist Nobody Expected
Just when the "garbage" narrative was burying Trump, President Joe Biden stepped into his own mess. During a Zoom call with the group Voto Latino, Biden was trying to condemn Hinchcliffe's comments.
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Instead, he said this: "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters."
Or did he? The White House frantically released a transcript claiming Biden said "supporter's" (singular, referring to Hinchcliffe). But the damage was done. The video clip went everywhere. Republicans, who had been on the defensive for 48 hours, suddenly had a shield.
Trump, never one to miss a theatrical opportunity, literally showed up to a rally in Wisconsin a few days later in a high-visibility orange safety vest and climbed into a customized garbage truck. "How do you like my garbage truck?" he asked reporters. It was a classic Trump move: take an insult and turn it into a costume.
Did the "Island of Garbage" Joke Actually Matter?
If you looked at the polls in early November 2024, you’d think Trump was toast with Latino voters. But the actual election results told a much different story.
Surprisingly, Trump actually improved his numbers with Latino and Puerto Rican voters in many areas compared to 2020.
- Osceola County, Florida: This is one of the most Puerto Rican-heavy counties in the U.S. Trump actually won it in 2024 after losing it to Biden in 2020.
- Pennsylvania: While the Harris campaign spent millions on "garbage" ads, Trump still won the state.
- Nationwide Shift: Exit polls showed a massive swing of Latino men toward the GOP.
Why didn't the insult stick?
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Basically, many voters were more worried about their bank accounts than a comedian’s bad joke. While the "garbage" comment was offensive to many, exit polls suggested that inflation, the cost of living, and the economy were the deciding factors. Some Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania told reporters they didn't like the joke, but they liked the price of gas in 2019 better than in 2024.
There's also the "identity politics" fatigue. Many Latino voters felt like the Democratic party assumed they would vote a certain way based on their ethnicity, while the Trump campaign messaged heavily on jobs and traditional values.
Key Takeaways from the Controversy
The saga of the "Puerto Rico garbage" comment is a case study in modern political warfare. It shows how fast a story can move, but also how high-level insults don't always translate to votes on the ground.
If you’re trying to understand the lasting impact, look at these points:
- The Vetting Gap: Political campaigns usually vet every word. The fact that Hinchcliffe's set went through (mostly) shows a breakdown in campaign discipline or a deliberate attempt to be "edgy" that backfired.
- Celebrity Limits: Despite endorsements from Bad Bunny and J.Lo, the cultural needle didn't move the electoral needle as much as Democrats hoped.
- The Gaffe Counter-Punch: Biden's "supporters are garbage" comment effectively neutralized the news cycle, giving GOP voters a reason to feel insulted and energized.
What You Can Do Now
Understanding this event helps navigate how political "outrages" work in an era of 24-hour social media. If you're looking to dig deeper into how this affected the final 2024 map, you should:
- Look at Precinct-Level Data: Check the results in Reading, PA, and Allentown, PA. These cities have high Puerto Rican populations and show exactly where the vote shifted.
- Review the Transcripts: Don't just watch the 10-second clips. Read the full set from Hinchcliffe and the full response from Biden to see how much "context" actually changes the meaning.
- Follow Latino Voting Trends: Keep an eye on how the "GOP Hispanic" movement continues into the 2026 midterms. The "garbage" controversy was a test of that movement's strength, and it proved to be surprisingly resilient.
The 2024 election proved that while words matter, they often struggle to compete with the "kitchen table" issues that drive people to the polls. The "island of garbage" might have been a viral disaster, but for many voters, it was just noise in a very loud year.