AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
Following a spate of indictments against Donald Trump, the mainstream media is now fretting that Democrats’ transparently partisan prosecutions of the former president may further alienate Latino voters, many of whom fled countries where political persecution is the norm.
Immediately after pleading not guilty last month to charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents, President Trump made a surprise stop at Café Versailles, an iconic Cuban restaurant in Miami that has long been a popular gathering spot for the exile community. There, he was greeted with an outpouring of support from a largely Cuban crowd.
The scene prompted MSNBC host Chuck Todd to declare, “We’ve not seen something like this in the United States before,” sparking a several-minute rant about “conservative MAGA Hispanics.”
CNN host Jake Tapper was similarly apoplectic, demanding that the network’s control room stop showing footage of Trump surrounded by cheering Cuban-Americans. “I don’t need to see any more of that. He’s trying to turn this into a spectacle, a campaign ad. That’s enough of that,” Tapper grumbled.
Todd’s and Tapper’s reactions captured the horror of the left as they began to realize that their attempts to turn Trump into a criminal were actually turning him into a martyr to many in the Latino community – a voting bloc that has moved rightward in recent cycles.
While the left had hoped that Latinos would liken Trump to corrupt politicians in the countries they or their families immigrated from, it instead appears that many view Trump as the hero of this saga, and the Biden administration and Democrat prosecutors as the corrupt figures.
The days that followed Trump’s Café Versailles visit saw similar handwringing from the mainstream media. An NBC News article lamented the success of Trump’s “long game” with Latino voters – in other words, the fact that his policies while in office won him many supporters in heavily Hispanic areas like Miami-Dade County and South Texas. A New York Times piece, meanwhile, accused Trump of “raising the specter of Latin American corruption.”
The clear insinuation behind both the NBC piece and the Times piece is that Trump is somehow duping vast swaths of Hispanic Americans into believing an ostensibly false story about the political nature of the charges against him. Rather than considering that Latinos may be looking at the situation themselves and making their own judgements, the view on the left seems to be that any support for Trump is because many Latinos are too naïve to see through the deception.
This patronizing view of Latino voters is one that has become all too familiar on the left in recent years – and is one that is likely costing Democrats at the ballot box.
Last August, for instance, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus launched a series of videos aimed at shoring up the Latino vote ahead of the midterms called “Our Lucha” or “Our Struggle.” But many Latinos slammed the content as demeaning and offensive, including for labeling any conservative Hispanics as “crazy.” One video asks whether viewers “have a superstition-loving Abuela or a crazy tio who’s always saying crazy things about stuff he heard en la radio.”
Unsurprisingly given the tone-deaf nature of this and other outreach efforts, Democrats continued to struggle with Latino voters last year. In Florida, heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade County – typically a Democrat stronghold – went for Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio by double digits.
Exit polling conducted by CNN showed that while Democrats won Hispanic women by a whopping 47 points nationally in 2018, that advantage was trimmed to 33 points in 2022. Among Hispanic men, the shift was even more stark – Democrats’ 29-point advantage in 2018 shrunk to just eight points in 2022.
2020 saw similar strategies and similar results for Democrats. Ahead of the election, Trump and Republicans hammered home messaging about Democrats’ self-professed socialist ambitions. With many Hispanics having fled failed socialist countries, the prospect of a bigger, more powerful federal government understandably drove Hispanic voters away from the Democrat ticket.
The media again frantically tried to counter this effective strategy, accusing Republicans of spreading “disinformation” in Hispanic communities. The New York Times published an article declaring that Trump was lying and Democrats “don’t fit the definition” of socialists – despite the fact that prominent Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders call themselves “democratic-socialists.” Reuters, meanwhile, cited a “misinformation campaign” which “falsely described presidential candidate Joe Biden as a socialist.”
Once more the media implied that Latino voters are incapable of distinguishing reality from falsehood, and socialism from capitalism. To them, there is no other possible explanation for the significant increase in Latino support for Trump from 2016 to 2020.
Democrat elites have showed a woeful inability to understand the voting bloc that was supposed to give them a foolproof and permanent electoral majority. Now, as the reaction to the Trump prosecutions has made clear, it may be Republicans who will soon be riding a wave of Hispanic support to victory at the ballot box.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @ShaneHarris513.
From my viewpoint the Latinos are, as in most part, a hard working people, living in the real world and voting for candidates that will provide jobs and a better life.
Most of hispanics are conservatives and I am one of them. I wish we are provided main media prime time to convey to the “imported” hispanics that they were brought here mainly to vote democrat, to abstain from voting since we the legal citizens are working hard to save this country.
One can only hope. Most hispanics I’ve known are optimistic, hard working and family oriented people. I hope the newcomers are the same, and the dems nefarious plans backfire totally.
Where i live hispanics are universally respected owing to their hard work in taking over virtually every contracting job and doing it on time and well. But this is not part of the demon party playbook. They want masses of helpless welfare dependents voting d in perpetuity. Hence sniffys open border. They’re doing everything possible to ensure a future voting block by flooding the country with so many newcomers that there arent enough roofing or landscaping jobs to go around. The millions of jobless illegals under sniffys reign might also become invaluable to the demon party as mindless rioters the like of which we see in france. Laying around waiting on welfare checks produces simmering rage at being dependent. Very useful to the demon party.
Elites didn’t take into account Latino religious back ground to backfire on them! Same like principles of Woke concept of the Demoncrapt policies in the attempt break our nation
Why am I not allowed to vote on the comments? I logged in and am a member and have not voted on this article before? So frustrating!
Will I next be blocked from making a comment?
The specter of Latin American corruption being raised through Trump is of the Democrats persecution of him.
Hey democrats…maybe a third, fourth or fifth indictment will do the trick! Maybe you can get him on a jaywalking charge and elevate it up to seditious and treasonous jaywalking! Keep up the great work you idiots!!!
Why can’t I vote on these comments? Is it something I posted?
BOOM!!!!!!!!!
When lies are the constant reality of what the democrats want us to believe eventually it catches up to you. Yes it has been a long time coming in our country to wake-up! They have diminished the population to being stupid and don’t understand most people want positivity within their lives and not chaos. The democratic party in my view offer things that don’t mean anything to the population but only lead to a path of unstable survival, all conditioned under feelings, really not caring about us and our future. Nothing they present helps to make our society stable or pushes in a direction where we can identify that the future will look better. The focus is on tearing down instead of building up a future for all. We don’t even talk about reality, only the turmoil of an emotional state of mind to align with and not that of the inner spirit and consciousness of how to be better from within with solutions to change the reality not creating an illusion. We are strong, mighty, and powerful beings when we come together in creating a loving society and put into action those things that move America forward from within the love and spirit of humanity. Let emotions heal but let America thrive in a reality that says we can be better when most can agree in love no matter skin color, race, sex, or tribe.
Progressives may have made a bad move trying to control citizens of Spanish descent from the Americas and Caribbean Islands. These are people who have strong theological convictions and a strong work ethic. They do not want to be taken care of by government. They want the opportunity to do for themselves.
7 years of false charges, phony impeachments ad nauseam by leftist democraps should backfire with any voter who has a functioning brain. Most Hispanics know this very well and see the democrap hypocrisy, that’s the reason so many voted for Trump.
Don’t forget that most Latinos are Catholic and might be respulsed by the Democrats’ position of allowing abortion up to the day before birth.
First, the Democrats are not responsible for the most recent criminal charges against Trump. Trump was indicted by a Florida grand jury and Jack Smith is a registered Republican. Second, Donald Trump and his three oldest children signed consent decrees relating to fraud charges against his charitable foundation. These fraud charges related to numerous instances of self-dealing. If he is guilty regarding his charitable foundation, what makes you so certain that he did not commit fraud in his business? You really need to exit the bubble you are in. Your Dear Leader has been accused of crimes pursuant to the Espionage Act. Please learn the law. This law is not dependent upon whether the documents were classified. All that is required is the disclosure of the contents could injure the United States. Your Dear Leader’s former press secretary has stated she saw Trump show classified documents to persons residing at Mar-a-Lardo. When will you realize you are supporting a lying con man?
First, the Democrats are not bringing the most recent criminal charges against Trump. Trump was indicted by a Florida grand jury and
So a lot of people are beginning to realize how destructive the Democratic party really is…I hope it’s not too late. We are in Obama’s third term….I doubt if we can survive a 4th.
It is time to stop calling the majority of the media “Liberal”. They are so far to the left that they have forgotten even what the center looks like. Just look up the true definition of the word and the media character bears no similarity.
Democrats patronizing Latino and Hispanics voters….isn’t that the same thing the Democrats have done to the Black voters for YEARS? It has taken Black voters years to see thru the Democrats antics, so maybe the Latinos and Hispanics will see thru them now.
It’s not the charges that are the problem, it is that they see everyone else had documents. People like Clinton and Biden who were not authorized to have them never get charged. If Hillary was charged for the illegal server or Biden for the documents when he was a Senator it would be different.
It is not about whether Trump is guilty or not, it is about why those with a D after their name can do whatever they want.