Poll reveals if the Puerto Rico 'island of garbage' joke has damaged Trump

When a speaker at Donald Trump's wild Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday compared Puerto Rico to a 'floating island of garbage' it sparked outrage.

But wall-to-wall media coverage of the incident involving comedian Tony Hinchcliffe appears not to have changed many minds when it comes to voting.

Just 0.7 percent of the electorate have a more negative view of Trump following the incident, which happened during a five-hour MAGA marathon in the heart of Manhattan.

The lack of impact on voters was revealed in an exhaustive final poll before Election Day by DailyMail.com and J.L. Partners, for which 1,003 people were surveyed.

More than 50 million Americans have already cast their ballots, but some are still making up their minds, and others are still considering whether to vote at all.

Amid the final fever pitch of campaigning every rally and speech by Trump and Kamala Harris is being more closely scrutinized.

For the candidates it is a high wire act and one verbal stumble, or unexpected development, could upend their chances.

The poll found that the events at Madison Square Garden were the second most noticed news story of the week, behind Israel's attack on Iran.

Hurricanes, food recalls, a scandal involving Diddy, the World Series and Elon Musk were the other stories on voters' radars. 

However, most Americans are focused on broader issues than Hinchcliffe's joke as they head to the ballot box, the poll showed.

When respondents were asked why they have a negative view of Trump, the most popular response was his 'general personal character' with 12 percent.

Concerns about the 78-year-old's 'mental state' followed in second with four percent while his 'self-interest and corruption' came in third. 

James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners, told DailyMail.com: 'Despite the news coverage of the comments at the Madison Square Garden rally, voters are responding with a shrug.

'Most people are talking about other broader issues related to Trump and Harris, whether it's attacks they've heard in ads, whether it's the economy, whether it's the bigger issues.

'What this says to me is that this moment has not changed the race. This is not definitively playing the role of an October surprise, and it's not shifting overall views of Donald Trump or his campaign.'

He added: 'That said, our poll can't pick up what impact this might have on specifically Puerto Ricans in, for example, Philadelphia, but certainly, on a macro level, this is no game changer.'

There are around 500,000 Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania, the state that could ultimately decide who takes the keys to the White House.

The winner between Trump and Harris could be decided by just a few thousand Keystone State residents.

Since Sunday, Harris and her Democratic allies have latched onto the comments.

Trump meanwhile used a campaign rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to endorse Puerto Rican Republican politician Zoraida Buxo.

On Tuesday night, Trump said he had 'never heard' of Hinchcliffe, the comedian who made the offensive comments at the beginning of his rally.

He told Fox News' Sean Hannity: 'I have no idea who he is. Somebody said there was a comedian that joked about Puerto Rico, or something, and I have no idea who it was. I never saw him, never heard of him, and don't want to hear of him.

'I have no idea. They put a comedian in, which everybody does...you don't vet them and go crazy.

'What they've done is taken somebody that has nothing to do with the party, nothing to do with us, said something, and they're trying to make a big deal. But I don't know who it is, I don't even know who put him in. And I can't imagine it's a big deal.

'I've done more for Puerto Rico than any other president that's ever been president.'

Hinchcliffe's controversial routine also