The meeting in New York, where Puerto Rico was labeled an “island of trash,” was a “love fest.” • Michigan Advance

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reiterated his hardline immigration stance Tuesday during an hourlong appearance from his country club in Florida, even as Democrats highlight the racist rhetoric his campaign and allies have used to describe Latinos in the final week of the presidential race.

During his speech at Mar-a-Lago, the former president made passing references to the criticism its meeting at Madison Square Garden received on Sunday — included comparisons to a 1939 meeting of American Nazis in the same building – but did not directly address the uproar caused by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s jokes about Puerto Rico and Latino immigrants.

Trump tried to change the narrative that followed the New York meeting, calling the atmosphere “an absolute love fest.”

“I don’t think anyone has ever seen anything like what happened at Madison Square Garden the other day, the love, the love, the love in that room. It was breathtaking,” he said.

“You know, they started saying, ‘Well, in 1939 the Nazis used Madison Square Garden.’ …What a terrible thing to say, right? Because, you know, they used Madison Square Garden a lot. A lot of people have used it, but no one has ever had an audience like this.”

The former president continued to promote his uncompromising stance on immigration, which was the main focus of his campaign, using racist language to describe the issue.

“I know we talk about inflation and the economy, but to me there is nothing more important than seeing the fabric of our country destroyed by people who were put there, put there by force,” he said. “I think what’s happening at the border is the biggest problem, and I see it more and more as I speak.”

Trump repeated the debunked claim that Aurora, Colorado, had been overrun by Venezuelan gangs and claimed, without evidence, that “a minimum” of 325,000 migrant children had been brought into the country as “slaves or sex slaves.”

Trump did not answer questions during the event, which was billed as a press conference.

Harris and DNC keep Puerto Rico in the spotlight

Democrats, including the party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, sought to contrast the language Trump and his allies have used about Latinos with that of Harris.

“Donald Trump spends his entire time trying to get Americans to point fingers at each other so that fans are the fuel of hatred and division,” Harris told reporters on Monday about Trump’s rally in New York. “And that’s why people are exhausted of him.”

A Tuesday press release from the Democratic National Committee noted that Harris was campaigning at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Pennsylvania on Sunday evening, almost at the same time that Hinchcliffe was calling the area a “floating island of trash.” Hinchcliffe also made a lewd joke about Latino immigrants.

Trump also promised “a new golden” era of closed borders during the event.

“Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican Party is driven by hate and extremism – and that is exactly what the Trump campaign has set out to deliver to voters as its final message in this campaign,” said DNC Co-Executive Director Monica Guardiola.

“These hateful and racist attacks reveal a deeper truth about Trump’s Project 2025 agenda: He will turn back the clock on our rights, rip children from their mothers’ arms, disinvest from our communities, and close our small businesses so that he can can solve problems. pockets of his billionaire backers.”

The statement also said the party would launch billboard ads near Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania with a Washington Post headline quoting Hinchcliffe.

“Trump rally speakers complain about racial slurs and call Puerto Rico ‘Island of Garbage,’” the billboards said, according to the press release.

Pennsylvania, perhaps the most critical of the seven swing states in next week’s election, is home to about 8% of the 5.6 million Puerto Ricans living in the United States, the fourth-highest concentration of any state.

The DNC billboards will be placed on highways near Allentown, Reading and Philadelphia, which have a significant Puerto Rican population, the DNC said.

Trump was scheduled to make a campaign stop in Allentown on Tuesday afternoon.

Trump is attempting a reversal

Tuesday morning at Mar-a-Lago, Trump sought to portray Harris and the Democrats as anti-American operatives, a continuation of a theme he has emphasized in the final weeks of the campaign that his political opponents are “the enemy from within.” ‘ are.

Commentators and experts on extremism have done just that warned that language tends towards fascism.

Calling his own campaign event one of love — despite the aggressive anti-immigration stance — Trump said Harris was waging “a campaign of hate.”

“Truly, perhaps more than anything else, it is a campaign of hate, a campaign of absolute hate,” he said. “I said yesterday she’s a ship. She is a ship. It is a very large, powerful party with smart people. They have to be smart, but it’s mean. They are evil and may even try to destroy our country.”