Donald Trump is poised to set yet another lowest of low bars this campaign: being the first major-party candidate this century not to run a single Spanish-language ad.
Wow, who woulda thunk it? Trump's built up so much goodwill it seems a shame for him to squander it. Oh, wait, that's exactly what the Trump camp is worried about—only with his whites-only base voters. Shane Goldmacher writes:
Adolfo Franco, a veteran Republican strategist who served as a top Hispanic surrogate for Mitt Romney and John McCain, said he had “a more cynical view” of Trump’s studied avoidance of campaigning in Spanish.
“I think they’ve made a calculation that going on Spanish TV in a more concentrated fashion and also placing ads in Spanish would upset his base,” Franco said. [...]
Four years ago, a total of $23 million was spent on Spanish-language ads in the 2012 presidential race by Obama, Romney and their backers; so far in 2016, Trump has spent zero. Trump’s campaign declined to comment for this story.
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Trump's campaign has reportedly made some "quiet" overtures to top Latino conservatives, who have almost uniformly rejected him. Franco, for one, and Juan Hernandez, a former adviser to George W. Bush. Meanwhile, Bush Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez is making Spanish-language ads for Clinton declaring he just "can't" vote for Trump.
Trump's best Spanish-language effort thus far is nothing short of pathetic.
At the Republican convention in Cleveland, officials handed out signs that read “Hispanics Para Trump,” which both didn’t translate Hispanics and used the incorrect Spanish word for “for” (para instead of por).
At least that taco bowl really made the rounds on Cinco de Mayo.