ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Urged by some allies to apologize for speakers' racist comments at his weekend rally, Donald Trump On Tuesday, he took the opposite approach, saying it was an “honor to be involved in such an event” and calling the scene a “lovefest” – the same term he used to describe the Jan. 6 insurrection Describe the US Capitol.

Trump gathered supporters and reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort two days after a meeting big rally at Madison Square Garden contained a number of broad remarks from various speakers, including a number of Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of trash.” Some of Trump's key Republican allies have condemned the comments, and his campaign took the rare step of publicly distancing themselves from Hinchcliffe's joke but not the other comments.

However, when given the opportunity to apologize at events and in an interview, Trump instead leaned forward. At his Florida resort, he said that “there has never been an event as beautiful” as his Sunday rally in his hometown of New York.

“The love in this room. It was breathtaking,” he said. “It was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest. And it was an honor to be a part of it.”

With just a week beforehand election daySome Trump allies have expressed concern that the rally, intended to highlight the Republican presidential candidate's closing message in grand New York style, instead served as a distraction even a burdenGiven the Electoral Importance of Puerto Ricans who live in Pennsylvania and other key swing states.

“This is not the time to let anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination and later endorsed him, said in an interview with Fox News Channel.

Trump was later scheduled to hold a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Hispanic population where he will also be joined by Puerto Rico's shadow U.S. Sen. Zoraida Buxo, according to a campaign official, speaking ahead of a formal event on condition of the Anonymity spoke notice. She expressed her support for Trump on the social media site

Still, there was anger in Allentown. Ivet Figueroa, 61, stood outside the rally venue holding a trash can labeled “Trash Trump.”

She said of the insult and Trump: “The person who said it was vetted by him. So he allowed that to happen, so he needs to take responsibility for what he said. Now it's too late to apologize. I don’t want an apology, I want justice and justice will come on November 5th.”

The fallout from the Madison Square Garden event could highlight voters' concerns about Trump's rhetoric and penchant for controversy in the closing stages as both campaigns jockey for votes. Speakers at the rally also made racist comments against Latinos, blacks, Jews and Palestinians, as well as sexist insults against Trump's Democratic rival, the vice president Kamala Harrisand former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

On Tuesday, Trump tried to put the controversy behind him and turn back to Harris, criticizing his rival's record on the border and inflation, saying, “She's broken it on every issue” and “I'll keep it in.” “Get it sorted out very quickly.” He did not take questions from reporters.

In an interview with ABC News early Tuesday, Trump sought to distance himself from Hinchcliffe but did not condemn his statements.

“I do not know him. Someone put him up there. “I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, according to the broadcaster, emphasizing that he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. When asked what he thought, Trump “did not take the opportunity to denounce them and reiterated that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.

The comments sparked outrage among Puerto Rican leaders.

The archbishop of Puerto Rico called on Trump to disavow her, saying it was not enough for the campaign to say the joke did not reflect Trump's views. The president of Puerto Rico's Republican Party called Hinchcliffe's “poor attempt at comedy” “disgraceful, ignorant and completely reprehensible.”

In Pennsylvania, where Trump was scheduled to campaign later Tuesday, the number of Latino voters has nearly tripled since 2000. More than half of them are Puerto Rican voters.

Angelo Ortega, a longtime Allentown resident and former Republican who plans to vote for Harris, said he couldn't believe what he heard about Trump's rally.

“I don’t know if my jaw dropped or if I was just so irritated and angry. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Ortega, who was born in New York but whose father was from Puerto Rico. Ortega has campaigned for Harris and said he knows of at least one Hispanic GOP voter planning to switch from Trump to Harris because of Hinchcliffe's comments.

“You did it. You did it. They listened to (Trump), but they said they think this was like the last straw,” said Ortega, a member of the advocacy group Make the Road PA.

Still, some voters of Puerto Rican descent remained unimpressed. Maricelis Torres, 24, a waitress training to be a radiologist, was waiting to attend the rally in Allentown and said she and her family laughed at Hinchcliffe's joke.

“If you don't understand humor, I'll say this: People are way too soft these days,” said Torres, whose father is from the island.

The Harris campaign has released an ad running online in battleground states aimed at Puerto Rican voters that highlights the comedian's remarks.

At a roundtable outside Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, Trump received some praise from Maribel Valdez, a retired occupational therapist from Puerto Rico. “Puerto Rico has your back and Puerto Rico loves you,” Valdez told him.

Trump thanked her and recalled his administration's efforts to help the island after storms. “I don’t think any president has ever done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” Trump responded delayed publication Until shortly before the 2020 elections, billions in aid were made available in Puerto Rico to repair years of hurricane damage.

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Gomez Licon and Price reported from Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.