Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican recording artist and one of the world’s biggest superstars, threw his support behind Kamala Harris’ presidential bid on Sunday, sharing a video of her plans for Puerto Rico on his Instagram — a move that came just moments after a speaker at Donald Trump’s rally in New York referred to the US territory as a “floating island of garbage”.

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known as Bad Bunny, shared his story with his 45.6 million Instagram followers in a video from Harris’ official account in which the vice president lays out his vision for Puerto Rico. A source close to Bad Bunny confirmed that the post was the artist announcing his support for Harris.

“I will never forget what Donald Trump did and didn’t do when Puerto Rico needed a thoughtful and competent leader,” Harris said in the video, which he shared four times, focusing on this part of her remarks in three of them. actions. “He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and offered nothing but paper towels and insults.”

Puerto Rican artists Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin also shared Harris’ video on their Instagram accounts, each expressing their support for her. The three artists alone have over 314 million Instagram followers between them.

Bad Bunny’s support for Harris came as she held a rally in Philadelphia, which has a large Puerto Rican population. Earlier in the day, Harris made a stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant in North Philadelphia, where she laid out her plans for the island and was met with supporters chanting “¡Sí se puede!”

Both Harris and Trump have made efforts to woo Puerto Ricans and other Latinos, who have historically leaned Democratic but have appeared to swing slightly toward Trump in recent years.

About two hours before Bad Bunny first shared Harris’ video, podcaster and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe disparaged Puerto Rico in remarks at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.

“I don’t know if you know this, but there is literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” said Hinchcliffe, host of the “Kill Tony” podcast, speaking in New York, the city with the largest number of Puerto Ricans outside the U.S.

Hinchcliffe also made offensive comments about Latinos more broadly, making a vulgar riff about how they “love to make babies”.

The Trump campaign on Sunday night tried to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s comments.

“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the campaign, said in a statement.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, expressed their anger at the comment while speaking on the live-streaming platform Twitch and said they hoped Puerto Ricans across the country would see the clip. Walz urged Puerto Ricans — hundreds of thousands of whom live in embattled states across the country — to vote and “send a message about that.”

“When you have a dump calling Puerto Rico ‘floating garbage,’ you know that’s what they think of you.” It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who is Puerto Rican.

Hinchcliffe defended her comments in response, saying Ocasio-Cortez and Walz “have no sense of humor.”

“Wild for a vice presidential candidate to take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist,” he wrote on X. “I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone. . . watch the whole set. I’m a comedian Tim,” he added, before making a rude remark about Walz.

Hinchcliffe’s comments drew some backlash within the Republican Party on Sunday. Representative María Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Florida, said she was “disgusted” by what he said and that “this rhetoric does not reflect GOP values.”

Sen. Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, home to the largest population of Puerto Ricans in the continental United States, also called the comments false.

“This joke bombed for a reason. Not funny and not true,” Scott, who is up for re-election this year, wrote in a post on X.

Kevin Muñoz, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, called the comments “a pretty split screen” from Harris’ announcement of her Puerto Rico agenda.

In her video, Harris outlined how her policy toward Puerto Rico will include improving health services, reducing housing costs, rebuilding and modernizing the island’s energy grid. She also announced that, if elected, she would create a task force where the federal government would work with private, nonprofit and community leaders to help spur economic growth and create jobs on the island, especially for Puerto Rican youth.

Democrats for months had hoped Bad Bunny would sway the race, given his huge influence with Latinos and young people. An endorsement from Bad Bunny is believed to give Harris a boost, particularly among young Latinos, whom the campaign has struggled to mobilize. There were some doubts about whether he would weigh in on the presidential race, given that Puerto Ricans on the island cannot vote for president, and he has long focused on island politics.