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Ruben Navarrette Columnist, host & author
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Why Trump is doing surprisingly well with Latinos

Ruben Navarrette Columnist, host & author
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Despite Donald Trump’s use of anti-immigrant rhetoric, which could potentially turn off some Latino voters, the former president is seeing a rise in support within this demographic. According to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, Latino voters, now constituting nearly 15% of eligible voters, show President Biden with 40% support compared to Trump’s 46%.

Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette asserts that Latino voters, previously a dependable Democratic constituency, are increasingly leaning toward the former president. Navarrette argues that this trend is evident in key battleground states like Arizona and Nevada, primarily due to their disenchantment with the current administration.

Trump was the most anti-Latino president since Dwight D. Eisenhower loaded Mexican immigrants and some Mexican Americans onto railroad cars in 1953 and shipped them back to Mexico as part of Operation Wetback.

If reelected, Trump promises to remove as many as 10 million people through mass deportations. Most of those removed would be Latino. No surprise there. Trump has never met a Latino that he didn’t insult, mistreat or scapegoat. During his first campaign for the presidency, he slandered Mexican migrants like my grandfather by calling them rapists, criminals and drug traffickers. How could Latinos support a guy like that?

On second thought, maybe some of this makes sense.

Trump keeps doing better and better with Latinos, especially Latino men, every time his name is on the ballot. In 2016, Trump got about 28% of the Latino vote, the same amount of support that Republican nominee Mitt Romney got four years earlier. In 2020, he got as much as 36%, which was a little better than GOP nominee John McCain did in 2008. And this year, in 2024, well, it would not be terribly surprising to most if Trump got a solid 40%, which would have him breathing rarefied air with former President Ronald Reagan, who got the same percentage of the Latino vote in his 1984 reelection. And Latinos loved Reagan. The main reason Trump is doing well with Latinos is that Biden is doing poorly.

President Biden has a big problem with Latino voters and spent a long time coming. A recent poll by the New York Times Siena College found that 48% of voters support for President Donald Trump and only 43% back Biden. Biden needs every vote he can get. And so we can’t afford to be bleeding support from what once once assumed to be a loyal democratic constituency. Latinos, especially since Latinos are voting in greater numbers than ever, and they are well represented in a pair of critical battleground states, Arizona and Nevada. The same poll found that just among Latino voters, Trump has 46% of the Latino vote compared to just 40% for Biden, so Trump is doing better with Latino voters than he is Americans as a whole. I kadamba stop the tape. Trump was the most anti Latino president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, loaded Mexican immigrants and some Mexican Americans onto railroad cars in 1953 and shipped them back to Mexico as part of Operation Wetback. if reelected, Trump promises to remove as many as 10 million people through mass deportations, most of those removed would be Latino. No surprise there. Trump has never met a Latino that he didn’t insult mistreat or scapegoat. During his first campaign for the presidency. He slandered Mexican migrants like my grandfather, by calling them rapists, criminals and drug traffickers. How could Latinos support a guy like that? On second thought, maybe some of this makes sense. Trump keeps doing better and better with Latinos, especially Latino men. Every time his name is on the ballot. In 2016, Trump got about 28% of Latino vote, the same amount of support that Republican nominee Mitt Romney got four years earlier. In 2020. He got as much as 36%, which was a little better than GOP nominee John McCain did in 2008. And this year in 2024. Well, it would not be terribly surprising to most if Trump got a solid 40% which would have him breathing rarefied air with former President Ronald Reagan, who got the same percentage of the Latino vote in his 1984 re election and Latinos loved Reagan. The main reason Trump is doing well Latinos is that Biden is doing poorly. Not that Biden ever did particularly well with Latinos to begin with, and 2020 Biden only got 61% of the Latino vote, compared to the 71% earned by fellow Democrat and former President Barack Obama in 2012. And the 72% that former President Bill Clinton got in 1996. Even after Biden one males, he was worried that Biden would eventually sell us down the river if his reelection depended on it. Now, here we are. After all, Biden is the quote, white working class whisperer, who got on the national ticket as Obama’s running mate in 2008. Because he magically connected with the lunch bucket crowd. You know what that group of voters doesn’t care much for the foreign competition represented by immigrants. Moreover, Biden also learned for Obama, how to betray his Latino supporters. And then with some political sleight of hand, make it seem like Republicans get the blame for it. Remember, Biden was by Obama’s side as the 44th president deported 3 million people, most of them Latino, and then it made it seem as if Republican has made him do it. Also, Biden’s own credentials as an immigration restrictionist are well established. They go all the way back to his time in the Senate, where in 1996, he supported a tough immigration bill that made it easy to remove people and nearly impossible for them to return illegally. And were in 2006. Biden voted for another bill that authorized and partially funded the building of 700 miles of fencing along the US Mexico border. You know, back in 2020, when Biden was elected, a lot of the folks who voted for him probably wondered what he was going to do. But Latinos always knew what he was most likely to do. disappoint that he did. And let’s he was noticed. And now unfortunately, it looks like they’re getting ready to send him a message when he’s not gonna like and the country may not survive.

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