Trump proclaims MAGA ‘greatest political movement’ in U.S. history

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Former President Donald Trump returned to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to make a final appeal to Keystone State voters and their 19 Electoral College votes, calling MAGA the “greatest political movement” in American history.

Mr. Trump, in the final seven days of his third campaign, reflected on the last nine years he had been traveling around the country.  

“I’m going to tell you, it’s sort of sad. We’ve been on this journey together,” he said. “When you think about it, we’ve created the greatest movement in the history, probably mankind, but certainly within the United States, MAGA — Make America Great Again.”

He said this is proven by the crowd sizes.

“There’s never been anything like it. We never have empty seats. We go to the biggest arenas We go to Madison Square Garden. It’s so big. We could have filled it up six, seven, eight times with all the people trying to get in,” he said.

Mr. Trump and his allies re-focused on his closing message since the backlash from a joke by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at his Madison Square Garden rally.

The campaign is counting on the inroads polls suggest he has made since 2016 and 2020 with Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics, especially men, in Pennsylvania and other swing states.

Mr. Trump said Tuesday evening that nobody loves the Latino community more than he does and that he had done more for Puerto Rico than any other president.

“I’ve provided historic funding [for Puerto Rico]. And the hospital ship, when they were hit with a couple of really bad ones right in a row,” he said. “We got the ship over there with 1000s of rooms, actually. It was amazing, a floating hospital, the biggest in the world.”

Mr. Trump said he will deliver the “best future for Puerto Ricans and for Hispanic Americans.”

He said that Vice President Kamala Harris, though, will slander and persecute Catholics, the dominant religion among Hispanics, and only deliver poverty and crime.

“We’re going to protect … Catholics, but you’re being persecuted by Kamala and her group. I will keep your family safe. I will defend religion. I will bring jobs, wealth and factories back and Puerto Rico in itself will be very thankful,” Mr. Trump predicted.

In an earlier interview with ABC News, he said he did not know Mr. Hinchcliffe.

“Someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” adding that he would not denounce the jokes because he did not hear them.

The environment in Allentown did not show that Mr. Trump had lost support among Hispanics.

Supporters who attended the rally in Allentown, a city with a large Hispanic population, waved signs that said “Boricuas con Trump” (“Puerto Ricans are with Trump“).

“I feel that Kamala had a lot of time to do well for the people, and she didn’t, and I don’t care for her ideas,” said Allentown resident Elena Rivera, 71, “I believe Trump, he knows how to do it. He already has experience, and he’ll do the best for us.”

Maria Ault, 46, a resident of Center Valley who is also of Puerto Rican descent, said she and her husband own a small business and are “struggling with inflation.”

Puerto Rico’s shadow U.S. senator, Zoraida Buxo, endorsed Mr. Trump at the Allentown rally and said it was too easy to “get get distracted or misled by propaganda, emotional manipulation and distortion of the truth and facts.”

“I urge you to watch out and stay focused on what is truly important when you go to cast your vote,” Ms. Buxo said. “We need change, and Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are not the option to bring about the kind of change that you need and want.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is Cuban-American, also warned about “irresponsible talk” that attempted to “distract” Republicans from issues that matter.

“At the end of the day, this campaign of dangerous hate and division. Compare that to what Donald Trump is talking about. Donald Trump is saying these people destroyed your economy,” Mr. Rubio said. “Elect [Mr. Trump] your president, and [he] will fix it.”