Reggaeton star Nicky Jam on Wednesday revoked his endorsement of Donald Trump after a comedian called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage” at a Madison Square Garden rally for the former president.
Nicky Jam, who is Puerto Rican, announced to his 42 million social media followers he was rescinding his endorsement. He had endorsed Trump during a campaign rally in Las Vegas in September.
“I never thought in my life that a month later a comedian would come along and criticize my country, speak poorly of my country, therefore I renounce any support for Donald Trump,” he said in Spanish in an Instagram post.
Why did Nicky Jam endorse Trump?
In his Instagram video on Wednesday, Nicky Jam explained that he had endorsed Trump “because I thought that was the best for the economy in the U.S., where many Latinos live, including myself, where many immigrants are suffering because of the economy, and him being a businessman I thought that was the best move.”
His September endorsement came as part of a coordinated effort by the Trump campaign to connect with prominent Puerto Rican voices in the culture as a way to court a community that could prove decisive in November.
Even if Trump proved unfamiliar with the artists the campaign was courting — “Do you know Nicky? She’s hot!” Trump said at his rally before Nicky Jam came on stage — the artist joined the former president at the mic and told the crowd, “We need Donald Trump as president again.”
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The endorsement sparked an immediate backlash on social media among fans and fellow Latino artists who were both upset by the endorsement and who felt the artist had been insulted by Trump. Among those who criticized the artist was Mana, a Mexican rock band that removed a 2016 song with Nicky Jam and said in a social media post that it “does not work with racists.” Nicky Jam ultimately took down his endorsement from Instagram.
Sunday’s “garbage” comment by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the Trump rally drew outrage among a key voting group just days before Election Day.
Among the celebrities who weighed in were Jennifer Lopez, Ariana DeBose and Ricky Martin. Martin, with over 18 million followers, took to Instagram and posted, “Puerto Rico, this is what they think of us, vote for Kamala Harris.”
Trump responded to questions about it on Tuesday by saying he did not know who Hinchcliffe was and was unaware of the joke he had made. “It’s nobody’s fault, but somebody said some bad things,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not, but I don’t want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes. Probably he shouldn’t have been there,” Trump added.
Trump made two stops in Pennsylvania Tuesday with a focus on the Latino vote. Although he spoke about the Puerto Rican community, he did not directly address Hinchcliffe’s comments. “I’m so proud we’re getting support from Latinos like never before,” Trump said at a rally at the PPL Center in Allentown. “Nobody loves our Latino and our Puerto Rican community more than I do.”
Pennsylvania is home to over 579,000 eligible Latino voters, according to the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute
On Sunday, the same day as the Trump rally in New York, Harris posted a video on her social media platforms pledging to create a Puerto Rico task force focused on creating jobs, cutting red tape on disaster recovery funds, and working with leaders across the island to ensure reliable and affordable electricity.
Reggaeton musician and singer Bad Bunny, a global superstar from Puerto Rico, shared the vice president’s video on his Instagram account with his 45 million followers, and later posted a clipped portion of the video in which Harris slammed Trump for his response to Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in 2017.
A source close to Bad Bunny confirmed to CBS News that the Instagram post represented an endorsement of the vice president, breaking from Bad Bunny’s prior tradition of not weighing in on national politics.