Bad Bunny releases video love letter to Puerto Rico after Trump rally slam

Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny is highlighting his love for his home island Tuesday, following the fracas over a comedy set at former President Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday that equated Puerto Rico to a garbage patch.

Bad Bunny posted a Spanish-language video on Instagram that he’d previously used in his “P FKN R” concert in San Juan’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium in 2021, which had since remained unpublished.

The video is a tribute to Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans featuring a host of top stars from all walks of life — from entertainment to politics to sports — with a connection to the island.

“This is the chronicle of a star that jumped from the depths of a great volcano at the bottom of the sea to another galaxy,” it says.

It’s the second time a Bad Bunny post has jumped on the national political stage this week, after he included a post by Vice President Harris on his Instagram story.

Bad Bunny’s political presence is a rarity at a national level — the musical superstar has generally been more active on local issues.

But the 2021 video is a showcase of a widely shared sense of pride in Puerto Rico that often transcends generations, even among U.S. citizens of Puerto Rican descent born on the mainland.

All Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, but because the island is a territory rather than a state, it cannot select electors for the Electoral College; Puerto Ricans on the island don’t vote for president.

But there are more than 5 million Puerto Ricans in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, compared to the more than 3.3 million on the island.

Bad Bunny’s video tells the island’s story through local heroes with higher name recognition in Puerto Rico — for instance, Olympic tennis gold medalist Monica Puig — those with a national platform such as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and historical greats including baseball star Roberto Clemente.

“It’s a history that started being written even before Hiram Bithorn was the first to pitch and before Roberto Clemente and Peruchín Cepeda spoke to the universe in Spanish,” says the narrator, referring to Puerto Rico’s original MLB greats and a key moment in Puerto Rican history.

In 1971, Clemente won the World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was named World Series MVP after a Game 7 home run that gave his team the lead.

Clemente, 37 at the time, thanked his parents in a postgame interview that became the stuff of legends in Puerto Rico for a simple reason: The man at the pinnacle of sports spoke Spanish on national TV.

Bad Bunny’s video captures the fervent passion Puerto Ricans often express for their homeland — and showcases why a comedian’s off-color joke calling the place “garbage” has resonated so loudly.

Many Republicans, including Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón, who is running for governor, quickly disavowed comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who spoke before Trump.

At the rally, Trump did not address the opening act’s offense, but campaign spokesperson Danielle Alvarez later stated that the joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

In an ABC News interview, Trump claimed not to know the comedian or to have heard the joke; during a press conference Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump made no reference to the incident, despite multiple calls for him to apologize.

Trump is due later Tuesday to visit Allentown, Pa., home to a key Puerto Rican community at the center of the 2024 election’s most important battleground state.

The stakes are high for Trump: Tens of thousands of Puerto Rican voters, who could decide the election, will be waiting to judge how and if he addresses the slight, which hit a raw nerve with its crass delivery.

“What this does is once again expose the colonialist mentality at the root of comments like this,” said George Laws García, executive director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council.

The aftermath of the Madison Square Garden comedy bit has already activated national voices such as Bad Bunny, who decided to republish his paean to Puerto Ricans.

“Lo que pasa es que esta raza no es pendeja.”

In the video, the success behind Bad Bunny — birth name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — is attributed to his origins.

“He’s not the best these days just for being Bad Bunny, but because he’s Benito, because he’s Boricua.”

Hollywood star Benicio del Toro sums up the video alluding to the 2021 concert’s title.

“Being legend comes naturally to us, because in the end there’s no greatest pride in each achievement than saying, ‘Yo soy de P f‑‑‑ing R,'” he said.

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