Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made an appeal to the Latino stronghold of Allentown, Pennsylvania, shortly after his controversial rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The Tuesday evening event came as Trump continues to struggle with the fallout from the New York rally, where a comedian compared Puerto Rico with a “floating island of garbage”.

But Trump appeared to brush aside the controversy on stage in Allentown.

“I’m so proud that we’re getting support from Latinos like never before,” he said to cheers. “We’re setting every record. Hispanics, Latinos — nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do.”

As if to drive home the point, the Republican leader surrounded himself on stage with figures from the Latino community.

Local mayoral candidate Tim Ramos, Cuban American Senator Marco Rubio and Zoraida Buxó, the shadow senator from Puerto Rico, all spoke at the Allentown event on his behalf.

A key stronghold

It was a show of defiance for Trump, who has weathered scandal in the past, prompting some critics to call him “Teflon Don”.

But the Allentown rally was also a risky gambit, as it placed him in the midst of a community that would have felt the sting of the Madison Square Garden remarks acutely.

Lehigh County, where Allentown is located, boasts the largest Latino community in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.

According to the 2020 census, an estimated 96,981 Latinos live in Lehigh County, out of a total of 374,557 residents. That amounts to more than a quarter of the population.

Several dozen protesters gathered outside of the local PPL Center in Allentown on Tuesday to denounce Trump’s appearance at the venue.

Some chanted, “Immigrants make America great,” a variation on Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Others shouted in Spanish for Trump to go away: “Trump, fuera!”

One demonstrator, Evit Figueroa, even held up a pink poster board with a handwritten message: “Nov 5 is trash day. Let’s put you where you belong!”

But other members of the local Latino community nevertheless came out to show their support for Trump, with signs like, “Boricuas for Trump”, which translates to, “Puerto Ricans for Trump”.

A pivotal battleground

Pennsylvania is the fifth most populous state in the US, and it therefore stands to award a substantial number of Electoral College votes to whichever candidate wins the state.

Trump has therefore campaigned heavily in Pennsylvania, hoping to earn its 19 Electoral College votes.

But he and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, are virtually tied in the state. A poll released by CBS News and YouGov over the past week shows both candidates pulling 49 percent support.

Nearly 9 percent of the state’s population identifies as Latino. In his remarks, Trump attempted to tailor his vision of a US downturn under Harris to his Latino audience.

“I will deliver the best future for Puerto Ricans and Hispanic Americans. Kamala will deliver you poverty and crime,” Trump told his supporters.

By contrast, he sketched aloud a future where he is re-elected to office, to the supposed benefit of Latinos.

“I will keep your families safe. I will defend religion. I will bring jobs, wealth and factories back. And Puerto Rico, in itself, will be very thankful. The whole Hispanic, Latino community will be very, very thankful,” he said.

Foregrounding Latino allies

Still, the shadow of the Madison Square Garden rally loomed over the proceedings in Allentown.

The rally was widely denounced as racist, and it prompted Trump’s campaign, if not Trump himself, to distance itself from the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico an island of “garbage”.

One of the speakers at Tuesday’s Allentown rally, Senator Rubio, had once been rumoured to be a candidate to serve as Trump’s running mate.

A day earlier, he had defended Trump on social media, writing, “Puerto Rico isn’t garbage, it’s home to fellow American citizens who have made tremendous contributions to our country.”

“I understand why some people were offended by a comedians jokes last night. But those weren’t Trump’s words. They were jokes by an insult comic who offends virtually everyone, all the time.”

Another speaker at the event, Puerto Rico’s shadow Senator Buxó, also attempted to help Trump recover from the Madison Square Garden controversy. Buxo serves in a symbolic role in the Senate, as Puerto Rico is not considered a state, and residents there cannot vote.

Still, Buxo appealed to the diaspora in the mainland. “For Latinos, dale a Trump la fuerza de tu voto,” Buxo said, using a Spanish phrase that means, “Give Trump the force of your vote.”

“I strongly and fully support and endorse Donald J Trump to be our 47th president,” she added, saying he would make “Puerto Rico shine again”.

Still, the backlash was felt even among Republicans in Puerto Rico. Angel Cintron, the chairman of the island’s Republican Party, said he would not endorse Trump until he apologised.

Instead, Trump has continued to say there was nothing but “love” at Madison Square Garden. He has not apologised for the comedian’s remarks or other controversial comments at the rally.

Democrats, meanwhile, have consistently criticised him for his divisive, anti-immigrant rhetoric.

A recent poll from the Reuters news agency and the research firm Ipsos found that while Trump had made gains among Hispanic men, he still trailed Harris among Hispanic voters overall.

Harris had 51 percent support among the demographic, compared with Trump’s 37.