RFK Jr. Defends Tony Hinchcliffe, Trump Following Puerto Rico ‘Garbage Island’ Rally Joke

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared a long post on social media Friday making the case to his followers to forgive Tony “Kill Tony” Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico joke made at Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally that offended Puerto Ricans and Latinos more broadly in the closing days of the 2024 presidential campaign. Several prominent Puerto Ricans, including Jennifer Lopez and Bad Bunny, subsequently came out in support of Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

“Tony Hinchcliffe is my friend,” Kennedy’s post began. “His special comedic aptitude for shattering orthodoxies and offending sensitivities has made him the king of roast comedy. I was therefore dismayed but not shocked at his offensive joke about Puerto Rico at President Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last weekend.”

Kennedy then turned his aim at Democrats who seized on the offensive joke to slam Trump and his fellow Republicans.

“I was also not surprised that the DNC’s allied corporate media did not report the groans of the crowd in response to Tony’s gag but instead leapt to weaponize the joke to validate their mischaracterization of the rally as a rightwing Nazi hate fest,” Kennedy continued. “The joke was a gift to DNC strategists striving to blunt President Trump’s exploding support among Latinos.”

The Trump ally went on to discuss the reason why the joke by “Kill Tony” hit a sore spot for Puerto Ricans.

“I knew the joke would also hurt the feelings of my many Puerto Rican friends who are accustomed to watching politicians, military brass and corporate leaders use the island as a dumping ground for substandard business practices,” Kennedy added, “while blaming Puerto Ricans for their poverty, poor health and environmental degradation on the island.”

The politician with a background as a crusading environmental lawyer, also known for antivaccine claims not backed up by the scientific community, went on to attack pharmaceuticals and processed food companies, which he wrote “have buried the island in excess packaging material and toxic waste.” He followed up by laying out his own Puerto Rico bonafides.

“My strong ties to Puerto Rico go back to 1964 when I first visited the island with Sargent Shriver, who was director of LBJ’s War on Poverty,” Kennedy said. “My family already had strong and affectionate relations with Puerto Rican leaders going back to Governor Luis Muñoz Marín, the George Washington of the Commonwealth.”

He went on to note his activism in the territory — which put him in prison for 30 days due to trespassing as part of that advocacy.

“I spent the summer of 2001 in a maximum-security prison in Puerto Rico for my role as a leader in the fight to stop the Naval bombardment of Vieques,” Kennedy wrote. “The Navy’s illegal dumping of millions of tons of highly toxic Naval ordnance had poisoned the fish and birds, destroyed the beaches and forests, and left the island’s people with the highest cancer rates and the highest unemployment in the Caribbean.”

“I named my youngest son Aidan Vieques because the first time I saw him was in the prison’s visitor room,” Kennedy continued. “We succeeded in driving the Navy out of Vieques, but the Pentagon left behind millions of tons of unexploded ordnance and toxic waste despite repeated promises and multiple court orders that they remove it.”

“This is some of the ‘garbage’ that Tony was referring to in his unfortunate joke,” the chagrined politician added. “Although they recognized his joke was, well — a joke — many Puerto Ricans familiar with these practices still felt wounded by Tony’s words — which seemed to blame Puerto Ricans for the waste that U.S. military, political and corporate leaders have dumped on their island.”

Kennedy went on to point out that he’s spoken with Puerto Ricans who agree that Hinchcliffe’s “unfortunate joke” doesn’t reflect Trump’s own views on Puerto Rico.

“But most of the Puerto Ricans with whom I have spoken also recognize that the gag does not represent President Trump’s sympathies toward the island and its people,” Kennedy continued, before praising Trump’s response to 2017’s Hurricane Maria. “Former Governor Ricky Rosello recounted to me that no U.S. president has done more for Puerto Rico in recent decades than President Trump, who came personally to the island after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017 and did everything in his power to make sure that the distressed citizens of the hard-hit island would not feel abandoned by their government.”

“After he and Melania toured the hurricane damage and met with victims, President Trump said that he and the First Lady loved and were praying for the ‘great, great people’ on the ‘great and beautiful island’ of Puerto Rico,” Kennedy wrote. “‘We’re marshaling every federal resource at our disposal,’ he said. ‘We now have more than 15,000 federal personnel on the island. We will not rest until that job is done. Puerto Rico has a long road of recovery ahead, but we know that its people are proud and they are resilient and they will come back strong.'”

He went on to note how Trump had spoken following the blowback to Sunday’s joke.

“On Tuesday at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, he said, ‘Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do.’ He promised, ‘I will deliver the best future for Puerto Ricans and Hispanic Americans,'” Kennedy related, before noting the praise from Puerto Rico’s “shadow senator,” since the territory does not have its own representation in the Senate. “At the same rally, Zoraida Buxó, Puerto Rico’s shadow Senator, gave President Trump her enthusiastic endorsement. ‘I strongly and fully support and endorse Donald J. Trump to be our 47th president — to make America great again and, of course, to make Puerto Rico shine again,’ Buxó told the crowd. ‘We need this man back in the White House. We need this man to be our Commander-in-Chief. He will make us feel safe, and he will protect us.'”

Kennedy concluded his statement by writing, “As a New York businessman, President Trump watched and appreciated the economic contributions of Puerto Ricans in New York. The tiny island has also given our city a disproportionate share of our greatest politicians, actors, entertainers and sports heroes. Given his history of support for Puerto Rico and its people, I am confident that when he is in the White House, President Trump will look out for the best interests of Puerto Ricans and Hispanic Americans, who now make up a big and growing part of the expansive MAGA coalition poised to give him victory on Nov. 5.”

Trump said this week that he wasn’t familiar with Hinchcliffe and hadn’t heard the joke. Given that he has promised mass deportations of Latinos who are undocumented, if elected, it remains to be seen how supportive Latino voters more widely will be of Trump in this election.

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