“He happens to be Hispanic, but I’ve never quite figured it out because he looks more like a WASP than I do. So, I haven’t figured that one out. But I’ll tell you what: there is nobody that loves this country more or Hispanic more than Steve Cortes,” Trump said at his rally in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
“Nobody loves the Hispanics more!” Trump continued, before asking Cortes: “Who do you like more, the country or the Hispanics? He says the country. I don’t know, I may have to go for the Hispanics to be honest with you. We got a lot of Hispanics! We love our Hispanics.”
Trumps’s call for Latinx to vote for him is bizarre to say the least, suggesting Latinx might have some sort of dual loyalty. Trump’s words could mean that his idea of being Hispanic is juxtaposed with being American, as if this was an either/or situation. Reality begs to differ. As it turns out, you could be both Latino and American; Latino and black; Latino, American and white and also, get this, you could be Latino and still vote for Trump. This last combination, however, is unlikely. A Washington Post-ABC News poll shows 25% of Hispanics approve of Trump as president. That’s fairly lower than the estimated 30% of Latinx who voted for him in 2016 and fairly lower than his 38% nationwide approval.
New Mexico has the highest percentage of Latinos, and it has been a staunch blue state in the latest elections. But Trump has insisted he can flip the state. Well, he certainly could, but it’s going to be an uphill battle here. His racist rhetoric, restrictionist immigration policies, white-identity politics and below-average approval ratings are not as attractive to Latinx voters as Trump might think.
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