Politics

Trump’s new pitch to Latinos is predictably insulting

Published

2 years ago

November 12, 2024

Trump’s new pitch to Latinos is predictably insulting

In his play for Latino voters, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is running the risk that whatever Latino support he’s assembled will crumble in the final weeks of the campaign. He and his campaign are looking silly at best and dangerous at worst.

Let’s start with the silly.

In his quest for more celebrity endorsements from reggaeton starsTrump misgendered Nicky Jam at a Las Vegas rally Friday. “Latin music superstar Nicky Jam. Do you know Nicky? She’s hot,” Trump said. Only when the music superstar, who’s a man, walked onto the stage, did Trump notice his mistake. “Oh, look, I’m glad he came up,” the former president said.

Despite the awkward moment, Jam eventually proclaimed in Spanish that “it’s been four years and nothing has happened. We need Trump. Let’s make America great again.”

Trump’s Latino strategy is bankrupt on ideas that will help Latino communities.

It was yet another instance of Trump insulting a Latino endorser before receiving their praise. A few weeks ago in Pennsylvania, Trump told Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA, “I don’t know if these people know who the hell you are, but it’s good for the Puerto Rican vote. Every Puerto Rican is going to vote for Trump right now. We’ll take it.”

Ignoring the shot at his popularity, Anuel called Trump “the best president the world has seen, this country has ever seen” and urged Puerto Ricans to unite and vote Trump.

Many of Jam’s Latino fans, however, were clearly not voting for Trump. Jam deleted his Instagram endorsement after so many online comments blasted him. The legendary Mexican rock band Maná announced it would remove a 2016 song collaboration with Jam from music streamers, saying on Instagram that “Maná does not work with racists.”

Jam also heard it from “Dreamers,” who called him out for what they said was his hypocrisy after publicly supporting undocumented youth just seven years ago. Now, Jam was backing a presidential candidate who openly calls for the “largest deportation” in U.S. history. As one immigrant rights activist texted me, “It all feels like a betrayal.”

That sense of treachery from MAGA-supporting superstars in the Latino community is no surprise. There are indeed Latinos moving to the extreme right based on the same beliefs other extreme Trump supporters espouse. Still, at a time when Trump and Republicans continue to cast all migrants as criminals not worthy of being in this country, such rhetoric feels directed at any Latino living in this country.

There’s no indication that the hostile rhetoric will stop.

That brings us to the dangerous side of conservatives’ chaotic strategy. With Hispanic Heritage Month in full swing, a new Spanish-language ad from a Trump-allied group warns U.S. Latinos that while citizens have a right to vote, they should be aware that noncitizens cannot. The ad even stresses that noncitizens risk getting arrested for committing a federal crime even though, as the Brennan Center notessuch a crime is “vanishingly rare.”

This commercial could only have been made by people entirely out of touch with Latino voters, people who assume that all Latinos in the U.S. are surrounded by noncitizens. Read the 2024 Republican platform with its emphasis on mass deportation and you’ll likely walk away with the impression that all U.S. Latinos are foreign noncitizens.

The data, of course, would prove that wrong. As Pew Research noted just last weekfor example, 3 out of every 10 Latino newlyweds are married to non-Latinos, with 41% of those new brides and grooms born in this country. That data slice tells a story of a changing demographic that is more English-dominant and crossing cultures. Painting Latinos as foreign invaders is a dehumanizing tactic now part of an official political campaign. The country’s Latino community is an integral part of the permanent fabric of this country, and the way Trump and Republicans continue to insist otherwise is insulting and politically dangerous.

But because Trump is Trump and his Latino strategy is bankrupt on ideas that will help Latino communities, this is likely what Latinos can expect till the election. There’s no indication that the hostile rhetoric will stop or that he’ll bother to learn who the Latinos who endorse him are. The sense of Latino community betrayal will be there and, each day, it will likely bring another old idea that won’t stick to the wall.

For instance, after the Nicky Jam mess and the noncitizen voting ad, the Trump campaign published a video in which the former president, in the words of El País English, “seems to dance to the rhythm of a well-known salsa song from the 1990s that no longer says ‘Juliana, qué mala eres’ (Juliana, you’re so bad) but rather ‘Kamala, qué mala eres.’” (Goya Foods CEO and Trump supporter Bob Unanue also said this during his remarks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.)

It’s not a new strategy. In 2020, a Spanish-language song about voting for Trump, from a Miami-based salsa band, became a social media smash. Back then, many Latinos questioned the judgment. Trump lost that election.

Trump’s frantic Latino strategy has not only been insulting, but also predictable and dull. While it remains unclear how many Latino votes he’ll get, he has done a good job of pitting Latinos against one another and exposed those who’ve blindly worshipped a politician whose central tenet is xenophobia.

Julio Ricardo Varela

Julio Ricardo Varela is an award-winning journalist and the founder of The Latino Newsletter.

Politics

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

Published

19 hours ago

September 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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Politics

Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.

In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.

Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.

Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.

“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.

Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.

“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.

He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”

Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.

“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”

The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.

In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.

“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.

He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”

The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.

“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.

Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.

“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.

He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”

While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.

“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”

Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.

Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.

“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.

He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”

Politics

Missouri Supreme Court pauses GOP gerrymander, likely netting Democrats 1 House seat

Published

3 days ago

September 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.

The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.

Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.