The most remarkable thing about the Trump campaign’s efforts to increase Latino support is that he actually has Latino and Hispanic support, as high as 34% in Florida, with its large Cuban community. The second-most remarkable thing about this story is that Trump was "shocked to hear" from Doug Deason, a prominent donor, that Hispanic voters don't believe Trump loves them and is working for them.
The third-most astonishing thing is that the 2020 Trump campaign has decided that it can make gains in the Latino and Hispanic communities and is hiring up and spending ad money to do just that. They're spending ad money in Florida; Trump has done his first interview with Telemundo; and Vice President Pence launched "Latinos for Trump" last week, while the picture of a drowned toddler and her father at the border was dominating the news coverage. While we were learning that children in the administration’s concentration camps had been denied even basics such as soap and toothbrushes. "All Americans everywhere draw inspiration from the Latino Americans' steadfast love of liberty," Pence said at the launch. And nothing speaks to Trump's commitment to liberty for Latinos and Hispanics like ripping little children from their parents' arms and putting them in cages where they are forced to lie in their own filth.
The campaign believes Trump can make his case to these voters on the basis of his economic performance. One of his longtime friends, Chris Ruddy, says that it's all just a matter of Trump "being a little more open on some of these immigration issues," and that he doesn't need to win everyone over, just "move the needle." It will also require a gag to keep Trump from opening his mouth and perhaps also the departure of one of Trump's most trusted advisers, white supremacist Stephen Miller, who seems to spend most of his time dreaming up new ways of torturing would-be immigrants.
It would also require a bout of collective amnesia in the Spanish-language community about the whole of Trump's first term. Melissa Mark-Viverito, the interim president of the liberal Latino Victory Fund, is predicting record Latino voter turnout against him in 2020. "Every day, it's an onslaught against our community. We know we're under attack. We know nothing good is going to come out of a second term of this administration," she said. The idea that he's now going to try to reach out to the community is "a slap in our face."