Donald Trump’s continued offense of Latinos

John Rodriguez

May 13, 2016

It’s no surprise that there is no love between Donald Trump & the Latino community, especially since last June when Trump verbally assaulted the Mexican community—which also impacted the Latino community at large—during his announcement speech which entailed his intention to become our 45th President of the United States.

In the speech, Trump associated Mexicans, Mexican Immigrants, and Latinos really to “killers” & “rapists” when he stated how in his presidency he would build a border wall between the United States & Mexico in order to keep out such people from entering the country.

Since then, Trump’s continued anti-Immigration/anti-Latino rhetoric has found some acceptance by Americans who believe his rhetoric. However, while this notion is disturbing Trump has been a benefit of sorts for the Latino community since more Latinos have become more politically active to prevent the possibility of Trump becoming president.

Last month, a Gallup poll revealed that 77% of the Latino community have an unfavorable opinion regarding Trump. So, could a recent blunder by Trump be just another typical bigot and lack of common sense posting to social media to mock Latinos or a bigot and lack of common sense attempt to sway Latinos to find him more favorable as a potential Republican candidate in the 2016 elections.

Last week for Cinco de Mayo, Trump took to his Twitter and posted a photo of him before a Taco bowl that was captioned: “ Happy Cinco de Mayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”

As expected, whatever his intention was, when the photo instantly went viral, Trump did receive the usual laugh and positive comments from like-minded racists but he also attracted a great deal of criticism from Latino groups who found the photo offensive as well as pandering.

Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza—the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization—expressed what many Latinos felt in a respond tweet to the photo.

“Eating a taco or wearing a sombrero doesn’t cut it w/our community in 2016.”

Trump is not exactly suffering in the election. With no real challengers to take the nomination from him and with a great deal of support from some Americas, whatever challengers that Trump may face from in-party challenges won’t hinder him.

What could prove to be an issue is the Latino vote, which as of now probably doesn’t even exist for him; even with 12% of Latinos finding him favorable, so say the Gallup poll. Whatever his intention was, whatever he may plan to do in order to win over Latinos remains to be seen, but there is still a long time for something to arise in-between now and November.

Sidenote, the Taco bowl meal is not an authentic Mexican dish. It was one created in America.