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Nicky Jam takes back his Trump endorsement after Puerto Rico “garbage” comment. Here’s what he said.
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.”
/ Getty Images
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.
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An Arizona man says police held him down on scorching asphalt while arresting him during the height of Phoenix’s summer heat wave, causing third-degree burns on his body.
Video obtained by CBS News from the man’s attorney shows Michael Kenyon talking on his cell phone walking in a parking lot on July 6 when police pull up in a Phoenix police truck. Two officers get out and Kenyon puts away his phone. Within a few minutes, they try to handcuff him and a struggle ensues. Two backup officers then arrive at the scene.
It appears from the video that the four officers push Kenyon onto the ground and hold him there. Officers then scuffle with Kenyon before he is finally handcuffed and the officers lift him from the asphalt and escort him into a police vehicle.
Kenyon’s attorney, Bobby DiCello, said he spent more than one month in the hospital after the incident recovering from burns from the asphalt.
When officers lifted Kenyon off the asphalt, his melted skin peeled off and fell to the ground, his attorney said. Police called an ambulance after an officer noticed his burns, police said.
Bobby DiCello
“They held a man — another human being — on a surface so hot that it caused his skin to bubble and boil. It defies all reason,” DiCello said in a statement, adding his client was now “scarred for life.”
DiCello said the temperature that day was 114 degrees, with the asphalt estimated to be between 180 and 200 degrees. Phoenix hit 100 straight days with at least 100-degree temperatures during the summer. Arizona has the country’s only chief heat officer, and Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, is the hottest metro area in the United States.
Phoenix police said officers responded to a call regarding a theft in progress. “Officers made contact with Kenyon, telling him he was being detained so they could understand what may have occurred. The man struggled with police, which resulted with him being taken to the ground on the hot asphalt. The man sustained burns to different parts of his body from the time he was on the ground,” police said in a statement to CBS News.
Police said Kenyon was determined not to be the robbery suspect they were searching for that day. Later when he was taken to the hospital, officers learned he had a felony warrant out for his arrest.
Phoenix police said their Professional Standards Bureau is investigating the incident.
contributed to this report.
Billionaire Elon Musk has been ordered to attend a Philadelphia court hearing on Thursday after he was sued by District Attorney Larry Krasner over his $1 million giveaway to voters.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in a courtroom at City Hall in Center City, according to a court document.
Last week, Krasner sued Musk and alleged that Musk and his super PAC are trying to influence voters in next week’s presidential election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The Philadelphia District Attorney is charged with protecting the public from public nuisances and unfair trade practices, including illegal lotteries. The DA is also charged with protecting the public from interference with the integrity of elections,” Krasner said in a statement announcing the complaint last week.
Musk, who founded Tesla and SpaceX, has thrown his full support behind Trump in his run for a second term in the White House. Nearly two weeks ago, he vowed to hand out $1 million a day until Election Day on Nov. 5 to voters who signed his PAC’s petition supporting the First Amendment and Second Amendment of the Constitution.
Some experts have questioned the legality of Musk’s actions to give voters $1 million.
“The actions that we’re seeing … it violates federal law pretty clearly. Actually, I don’t think it’s a particularly close call,” Adav Noti, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, told CBS News last week.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also questioned Musk’s giveaway.
“I think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That is deeply concerning,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week.
Musk has been very active in supporting Trump in Pennsylvania, one of the key battleground states in the election. He was in the Philadelphia area for a town hall on Oct. 17 calling on Pennsylvanians to get registered to vote.
At the town hall in Ridley High School in Delaware County, Musk called Pennsylvania “linchpin” for the 2024 election.
“I’m here for a very important reason, which is – I can’t emphasize this enough – Pennsylvania, I think, is the linchpin in this election,” Musk said at the time. “This election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America, and along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization.”
