A comedian’s joke at a Trump rally has sent his campaign into damage control

Washington: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have entered the final week of the US election locked in a neck-and-neck race as they attempt to bridge a widening gender gap, take the lead on immigration and the economy, and convince undecided voters their opponent is a danger to America.

With one week until the November 5 election, Trump’s campaign spent the day in damage control after a speaker at his Madison Square Garden rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”, prompting a furious backlash from celebrities, Democrats and some Republicans.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are hitting the battleground states.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Harris, meanwhile, fended off ongoing anger over the war in Gaza as she campaigned in Michigan ahead of a major speech she will make near the White House on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), in the same place where Trump rallied supporters before the January 6 attack at the US Capitol in 2021.

After a historic campaign marked by upheaval and political violence, both sides enter the final sprint with the latest New York Times polling average showing Harris leads nationally by less than 1 percentage point – her smallest lead since mid-August.

The battleground states also remain extraordinarily tight, with no candidate holding any material lead in the seven states most likely to decide the presidency.

Almost 47 million Americans have already voted, leaving only a small group of undecided voters left to convince.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Burns Park in Ann Arbor, Michigan.Credit: AP

“There’s no way to predict who is going to win this election,” said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist and election forecaster from Emory University.

“Anyone who tells you they can confidently predict who’s going to win this election is either BS-ing you or they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

In a last-minute push for votes, both Harris and Trump traded blows as they barnstormed battleground states.

Trump was in Georgia, where he used a rally in Atlanta to accuse Harris of ruining America with “radical, lunatic-left policies” and was “prayed over” at a National Faith Advisory Summit.

Donald Trump is “prayed over” during the National Faith Summit at Worship With Wonders Church, in Powder Springs, Georgia.Credit: AP

But the former president’s campaign and allies were also forced to answer for hateful and racist rhetoric delivered from warm-up speakers at Trump’s rally in New York.

Among the speakers was businessman Grant Cardone, who declared that Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country”; former Fox presenter Tucker Carlson, who joked that Harris, who is of Indian-Jamaican descent, was “Samoan-Malaysian” and had “a low IQ”; and former White House aide Stephen Miller, who declared that “America is for Americans and Americans only”.

The biggest backlash, however, was in response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who told the capacity crowd: “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

The joke was one of several Hinchcliffe made towards Latinos and black people, two powerful voting blocs at this year’s election, prompting Trump adviser Danielle Alvarez to issue a statement saying: “This joke does not reflect the views of [former] president Trump or the campaign.”

However, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, who is one of the biggest and most influential Latin celebrities in the world, has since endorsed Harris for president.

Others who rebuked the comments include fellow Puerto Rican pop stars Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin, progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose family hails from Puerto Rico, and Trump ally and Senator Rick Scott, whose Florida electorate has high numbers of Puerto Ricans.

“The joke bombed for a reason. It’s not funny and it’s not true,” Scott said. “Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans.”

Before heading to Michigan, Harris said the rally comments were indicative of a person who “is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country”.

“What he did last night is not a discovery. It is just more of the same,” she said.

However, in a sign of ongoing discontent over the war in Gaza, Harris’ rally in the Michigan university town of Ann Arbor was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters.

“I hear you on the subject of Gaza,” she responded. “We all want this war to end as soon as possible and get the hostages out. And I will do everything in my power to make it so.”

Trump will make his final pitch to voters on his key themes: illegal immigrants, transgender rights such as “men competing in women’s sports”, and the economy.

At a rally in Atlanta, he also described the Harris campaign as one of “demonisation and hate”, telling the crowd: “They say, ‘He’s Hitler.’ They say, ‘He’s a Nazi.’ I’m the opposite of a Nazi.”

“She’s a fascist,” he added in reference to Harris, without explaining how.

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