In his second inaugural address, Donald Trump delivered a memorable message to the Hispanic community. “I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote,” the president said. “We set records, and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come.”
The rhetoric was predictably disconnected from reality. The Republican ticket’s performance with Hispanic voters had improved over his earlier races, but the assertion that it “set records” was absurd. Nevertheless, his comments suggested that Trump might at least try to be slightly less punitive toward the community in his second term.
But with his aggressive mass deportation campaign specifically targeting Latino communities, the political impact was unavoidable. The Associated Press reported:
President Donald Trump’s favorability has fallen among Hispanic adults since the beginning of the year, a new AP-NORC poll shows, a potential warning sign from a key constituency that helped secure his victory in the 2024 election. The October survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 25% of Hispanic adults have a ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ favorable view of Trump, down from 44% in an AP-NORC poll conducted just before the Republican took office for the second time.
The Republican’s favorability among Hispanic voters hasn’t been this low since 2019, and there’s no reason to assume that trend-line is going to turn around.
The AP’s report on the data added that younger Hispanics and Hispanic men, who moved closer to Trump in the 2024 race, are also turning against the president: “About two-thirds of Hispanic adults under age 45 and Hispanic men now view Trump unfavorably, according to the new poll.”
After Trump won a second term, there was considerable discussion about whether he was driving a political “realignment.” Over the last couple of decades, Hispanic voters have generally been seen as part of the Democratic coalition, but with Trump making significant gains, despite dehumanizing language toward immigrants during his 2024 candidacy, many observers speculated about a shift that would help Republicans enormously going forward.
It appears those assumptions are due for a re-evaluation.
“The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has become a campaign of discrimination against Latinos,” the editorial board of The New York Times explained in a newly published piece. “Federal agents are rounding up people with brown skin, catching both U.S. citizens and legal immigrants in their dragnet. Some Latinos are now afraid to speak Spanish or listen to Spanish music in public. Some are missing Mass and staying home on Sundays, or asking friends to pick up their children from school. American citizens are living in fear of a government that is sworn to protect their liberties and keep them safe.”
It is a commitment the Republican White House appears to have fundamentally rejected. This has not gone unnoticed.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
