When it comes to trash talk, you can’t beat the Donald

‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ is a computer programming principle which states that the quality of a system’s output is determined by the quality of its input. It’s also a phrase that speaks to US politics this week. 

After a string of good news cycles for the Republican campaign, the Democrats finally believed they had caught a break on Sunday night after the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a joke about Puerto Rico on stage at Trump’s mega-rally in Madison Square Garden in New York. ‘I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,’ said Hinchcliffe. ‘It’s called Puerto Rico.’ Other speakers made other ill-judged remarks, but the garbage line seemed to stick. 

Hinchcliffe is famous for the sheer offensiveness of his comedy but the Democrats, knowing that nearly a million Puerto Ricans live in swing states, seized on his quip as yet more evidence that Trumpworld is racist.