Puerto Ricans are sounding off after "comedian" Tony Hinchcliffe stood on a stage at Madison Square Garden at a Donald Trump rally and proceeded to refer to their homes as an 'island of garbage' - and their anger may lose him some of those Hispanic votes he's counting on.

Former president Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday drew a 20,000-strong crowd to New York City, where Hinchcliffe managed to anger individuals of nearly every ethnicity, race, and orientation before introducing the Republican frontrunner.

“There is literally a floating pile of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico," Hinchcliffe announced to the stadium, to laughs from the audience.

Those laughs aren't sitting well with the Puerto Ricans all around the U.S. who are born citizens. "If our people are good to serve in the military, die for this county, then why are we still considered not good enough to be treated with respect?" asks Jackeline Sanchez, a chemical engineer who lives full time in Puerto Rico.
In 2017, Donald Trump threw a paper towel roll at a crowd after a Hurricane - years later, not much has changed say residents

"At the moment I do feel safe in the U.S., despite this situation, but the current event, and the fact that Trump might become president again, does make me remember when he was president and I was living in the U.S. at the time. It was a period of time where I did feel unsafe, because I felt that since the president was openly racist, it gave everyone the 'permission' to treat Latinos, and even us Puerto Ricans, which are U.S. citizens, like we are less, like we don't belong," continued Sanchez.

"When I saw the expressions made at the rally by the comedian, I felt upset and hurt, but at the same time, I was not surprised.... If, during Hurricane Maria, the worst time for the island, he threw paper towel rolls at people in need as if it was a joke, I can't ever expect him not to be disrespectful toward us, either directly or through people working for/with him," finished Sanchez.

A Trump spokesperson has since claimed the former president and individuals involved in his bid for the White House do not align with Hinchcliffe's comments.

However, that's done nothing to starve off people's anger. Celebrities of Hispanic descent have endorsed Harris after the comedian's comment. Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny - whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio - told his 45 million followers on Instagram to vote for Harris and said Hinchcliffe as Trump's "racist comedian."
Donald Trump's MSG rally was compared to a 1939 Nazi rally at the venue by some critics (
Image:
Getty Images)

Johmar Sanchez, a 35-year-old Puerto Rican developer living in North Carolina, also felt the sting of a rally applauding Hinchcliffe's racist comments. "As a Puerto Rican living in NC, I felt attacked, very mad as well, knowing that PR is such a beautiful place with warm people."

"Also, thinking on what choice we have if we can't be our own country or at least be treated like any other state. Part of the problem is the people of the U.S. don't even know that we are U.S. citizens, that we pay taxes and that we have the same rights as any other person. So yes, I feel very mad about how this horrible line came from a public meeting, how the Republican party allows this to go out, and how they feel about Puerto Rico," added Sanchez.

Political analysts claim Hinchcliffe's words could push Latino voters over to Harris as the U.S. is home to 900,000 voting Puerto Ricans spread throughout the states, according to Politico. Estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that "more than 470,000 people of Puerto Rican descent live in Pennsylvania, 132,000 in North Carolina and 124,000 in Georgia," while tens of thousands live in Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Michigan, adds Politico.

Terrance Smith, 35, Connecticut, tells the Mirror, that he sees it as an opportunity for his diaspora. " I think there is nothing scarier than Puerto Ricans beginning to harness power. I think that right now we're a bit emboldened by this. By the comments, by the quote-unquote jokes… You'd be surprised and how Puerto Ricans are getting organized to really target the upcoming election," begins Terrance in a phone interview.

"You know, there's thousands of us in across different states like Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma. That could be the tipping point in changing the course of some of these swing states. So angry Puerto Ricans are a great thing to have in this kind of election."

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"We just have to look back to a couple of years ago where we ousted the Governor of Puerto Rico with mass protests and we really shut it down. We shut a lot of the infrastructure down in Puerto just to make it a point. To speak to how unacceptable his behavior was and the abuse of power. And I think that right now we're at the beginning stages of organizing another movement to ensure that our voices are heard and that we are represented accurately in the face of the American nation."

"And that we're not tolerating this type of rhetoric being used to classify us because as it stands right now, Puerto Rico is a convenient place to hide your money. It's a convenient place to avoid paying taxes, but it's also being the butt of the dog. So you can't really have it all."

Smith finished by pointing out that "Puerto Ricans are incensed and we're organizing all of our efforts to ensure that. if this was a political strategy to really get us angry… Well, all it was was motivation to get us organized. We are well equipped to tap into our resources and our diaspora across several key states to ensure that the message gets across and that we vote in a way that reflects our pride and also our value as people."