Trump Tweets Photo Of Taco Bowl Captioned ‘I Love Hispanics!’
Donald Trump reached out to Hispanic voters today, by celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a taco bowl and a tweet that is already attracting criticism from the very voters Trump intended to reach.
“Happy Cinco de Mayo! The best taco bowls are made in the Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!” Donald Trump tweeted today, along with a photo of the presumptive Republican nominee hunched over a large taco bowl.
Donald Trump has had a hard time attracting Hispanic voters, even traditionally Republican Cuban voters, who have found Trump’s hardline stance on immigration a tough pill to swallow. Trump has tried to backpedal from earlier statements about the notorious wall he intends to build between the United States and Mexico, but despite his best efforts, his poll numbers among Hispanic voters remain relatively low.
Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016
Today’s tweet, featuring a grinning Trump giving a thumbs up while he gets ready to eat a taco bowl from the Trump Tower Grill is unlikely to do much to assuage the worries Hispanic voters have about a Trump presidency – many of whom registered to vote in the upcoming election specifically to vote against the New York billionaire in part due to his hardline stance on immigration.
Earlier this campaign season, Donald Trump came out swinging, with fiery rhetoric aimed at undocumented immigrants and the government of Mexico, calling undocumented workers “rapists” alleging that “they bring crime” to the United States.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” said Donald Trump in the early days of his presidential campaign.
The Trump campaign has struggled to win support among Hispanic and Latino voters ever since Trump came out with his plan to build the wall, and his campaign rhetoric has continued to alienate Hispanic voters, reports Politico.
“The Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning. And they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them. They don’t want to take care of them,” Donald Trump said earlier in his campaign.
@realDonaldTrump C'mon man, even your Mexican food has a wall.
— danny o'dwyer (@dannyodwyer) May 5, 2016
Now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, with Ted Cruz and John Kasich out of the running, Donald Trump has turned toward unifying the Republican Party and continues to work on attracting Hispanic voters. Even Trump’s vice presidential shortlist has led to speculation that he might choose a Hispanic Republican politician to shore up support among Latino voters.
On Trump’s vice presidential shortlist is New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, the first female governor of New Mexico and the first Hispanic to lead the Republican Governors Association, reports The Hill. Trump has even reportedly had phone calls with Marco Rubio, leading some to speculate that Rubio might be in the running as a Trump VP pick, but it remains to be seen whether Trump’s vice president can help shore up his failing poll numbers among Hispanic voters.
I wrote about the taco bowl. https://t.co/WqwnHQmmcp
— Philip Bump (@pbump) May 5, 2016
According to Politico, Donald Trump’s support among registered Hispanic voters was, at one time, the lowest among GOP candidates, trailing Hillary Clinton by a huge margin. According to the poll, eight-in-10 Hispanic voters have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump, in part due to his inflammatory language and continued insistence that he will build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deport undocumented immigrants.
Overall, Hispanic voters favor Clinton and Sanders over the Republican candidates by a large margin: 39 percent said they would support Clinton, 19 percent said they would support Sanders, and only 7 percent said they would support Donald Trump, reports Politico.
[Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images]