Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia Are Angered by Bigoted Remarks at Trump Rally

Puerto Rican residents of Philadelphia reacted with shock and anger on Monday at racist remarks against Puerto Rico and Latinos made by a speaker at former President Donald J. Trump’s rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, joining a growing public backlash.

The electoral significance of the episode was less clear. In a city with one of the largest Puerto Rican communities in the country — and more than 230,000 residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino — some supporters of the former president appeared unmoved, even as they denounced the offensive remarks. And some voters who did not currently support either Mr. Trump or former Vice President Kamala Harris did not seem to be immediately swayed to make a decision.

Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial presidential battleground in the country, could tilt either way, with polls showing the race as dead even as the Trump and Harris campaigns vie for any advantage. Ms. Harris and her allies quickly moved, on social media and in a news conference in Philadelphia, to amplify and denounce the offensive remarks, including one by a comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” The Trump campaign issued a rare statement distancing itself from the remarks.

Puerto Rican Trump supporters interviewed in Philadelphia did not directly blame the former president, arguing that he did not share those views about the island territory, though at least one wished that he would more forcefully denounce them. A Puerto Rican business owner in the Centro de Oro neighborhood, who did not wish to be identified to avoid a backlash against his store, said he trusted Mr. Trump more than Ms. Harris on the economy and on reducing immigration.

Another Puerto Rican Trump supporter said the remarks against his home island did not upset him because they were the words of a comedian and not the former president. The supporter, Max Izaguirre, 78, of North Philadelphia, added that he agreed with Mr. Trump’s view that immigration had made the United States “like a garbage can for the world.”