Donald Trump and his allies are full of bravado over his chances of victory in the closing days of the 2024 campaign. But there are signs, publicly and privately, that the former president and his team are worried that their opponents’ descriptions of him as a racist and a fascist may be breaking through to segments of voters.

That anxiety was clear after Trump’s six-hour event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where the inflammatory speeches on Sunday included an opening act by a comedian known for a history of racist jokes who derided Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” and talked about Black people carving watermelons.

The backlash among Puerto Rican celebrities and performers was instantaneous across social media, prompting the Trump campaign to issue a rare defensive statement distancing themselves from offensive comments. In a tight race, any constituency could be decisive and the sizable Puerto Rican community in the battleground state of Pennsylvania was on the minds of Trump allies.

Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement that the Puerto Rico joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

The Trump ethos has generally been to never apologize, never admit error and try to ignore controversy. Alvarez’s statement was a rare break from that tradition, reflecting a new concern that Trump risks reminding undecided voters of the reportedly dark tenor of his political movement in the closing stage of the 2024 race.

Some of Trump’s Republican allies, seeming to harbor similar misgivings, were quick to criticize the joke and the comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, who made it.

David Urban, an informal Trump adviser with long ties to Pennsylvania, where there are large numbers of Puerto Rican voters, posted on the social platform X: “I thought he was unfunny and unfortunately offended many of our friends from Puerto Rico,” adding the hashtag “#TrumpLovesPR.”

The pushback also came from officials in Florida, where Trump’s campaign is based and some of his advisers have spent their careers.

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida posted on X on Sunday: “It’s not funny and it’s not true.” Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, of south Florida, condemned Hinchcliffe’s comments and said she was “disgusted,” adding that it did not reflect Republican values.

“Puerto Rico isn’t garbage, it’s home to fellow American citizens who have made tremendous contributions to our country,” Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida posted on X on Monday. But he also made a point to note that “those weren’t Trump’s words. They were jokes by an insult comic who offends.”

Asked to comment on Trump allies’ showing worry that some of the attacks are breaking through, the Trump campaign did not immediately respond.

Vice President Kamala Harris seized on the remarks, telling reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Monday morning that Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden offered fresh evidence of the former president’s divisiveness. Trump, she said, “fans the fuel of hate and division and that’s why people are exhausted with him.”

Harris, the Democratic nominee, is preparing to deliver a speech at the Ellipse near the White House that’s being cast as the closing argument of her three-month campaign, after she replaced President Joe Biden on the ticket. It is the same spot where Trump delivered a speech to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, calling on Congress to reject Biden’s electoral college votes. Hundreds of those supporters then marched to the Capitol and violently disrupted the certification.