After Donald Trump’s remarks on immigration in Arizona this week, the question wasn’t whether the Republican would lose Latino support, but rather, how much.
The scope of the backlash is still coming into focus, but some of the developments are already striking. We discussed yesterday that Jacob Monty, a member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council, quickly resigned from the campaign team in the wake of Trump’s remarks, and soon after, Ramiro Pena, a Texas pastor and Trump adviser, also quit.
According to a tally from TPM, “at least four members” of Trump’s Hispanic panel have resigned, withdrawn their support, or both.
Latinos for Trump cofounder Marco Gutierrez issued the strange prophecy during a discussion of Trump’s proposal to deport millions. He began by quoting “Star Trek,” saying “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”Then, for good measure, he added, “and different times, different problems.”When asked to clarify, Gutierrez went from “Trek” to trucks, specifically taco trucks. “My culture is a very dominant culture,” he warned. “And it’s imposing, and it’s causing problems. If you don’t do something about it, you’re gonna have taco trucks every corner.”
For what it’s worth, I have no idea why that’s supposed to sound scary.
On the same show last night, MSNBC’s Joy Reid asked Steve Cortes, a member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council, to stop referring to undocumented immigrants as “illegals.” He refused.
Alfonso Aguilar, the head of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles and a Trump supporter up until a few days ago, talked with the Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent yesterday about the political landscape.
Aguilar told me he had been in touch with the Trump campaign in recent days, and came away believing that there had been an internal struggle over the issue, and that the restrictionists won.Now, Aguilar said, other Latino conservative leaders, including people the RNC has traditionally relied on to reach Latino voters, would soon be having a “conversation” to “figure out what to do.”“Reince Priebus right now is probably in despair,” Aguilar said.
That seems like a very safe bet.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."