Fresh off his basketball tour through Puerto Rico, Donald Trump invited a lovely crowd to the White House to celebrate the heritage of those he once disparaged as "rapists" and "murderers" and "drug dealers." He's come a long way and it shows.
Ah, Trump the uniter—getting everyone together in a room full of love. Naturally, he was excited to revisit his trip to see the less devastated parts of Puerto Rico.
"We just got back from Puerto Rico together," he said, Melania Trump standing uncomfortably behind him. "And it was—it was really quite a sight. We're doing a great job there." Pitch perfect. It's always about him and it's always tremendous (even as some 95 percent of the island continues to struggle without power). You know what they say—foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
But to his credit, Trump did step out of his comfort zone a bit, even trying to speak Spanish at one point. "We are also praying for the people of PUerto Rico. We love PUerto Rico," he said, breathily trying to effect an accent (vid here). “And we also love Puerto Rico," he quipped, pleased with his gringo folksiness. Two different places, apparently, PUerto Rico and Puerto Rico.
Trump solidified his sophistication with some international political banter, sending prayers to Mexico following the country's deadly earthquake and praising Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
“You have a wonderful President in Mexico, I can tell you," he assured attendees.
Trump also waded into gender politics with a shout out to female business owners.
"Today, Hispanic American-owned small businesses are growing at a tremendous rate,” he said. “Especially among our Latinas!" he added, inviting them to raise their hands.
Frankly, it was all pretty par for Trump’s course—he sounded fairly reasonable when he was on script and he committed gaffe after gaffe when he was off script.
As one reporter noted: “Trump's scripted Hispanic Heritage Month speech was pretty normal except for the few seconds he pretended to be a Hispanic.”