Donald Trump ’s affront to the Latino community reached new heights last week after Mexican-American journalist Jorge Ramos was forcibly removed from the presidential candidate’s Iowa press conference. But it wasn’t the first time Trump has offended Latinos.
His anti-Latino remarks have cost him several business partners since the launch of his campaign in June, including NBCUniversal, which aired Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice” and co-owns the Miss Universe Organization. Several prominent figures in the Latino community have also spoken out against Trump; actress America Ferrera and singer Ricky Martin published scathing op-eds condemning Trump’s actions and rallying Latinos to unite against him.
Even though only 18 percent of Hispanics take Trump seriously as a presidential candidate, the Republican has vowed that he “will win the Latino vote” if nominated.
If Trump wants to win the Latino vote, he might want to learn from past mistakes. Here are 9 of the most outrageous things the presidential candidate has said about Latinos.
In Trump's speech when he announced his candidacy for president, he began by comparing Mexican immigrants to "rapists" and then decided to broaden the scope of his insult to all Latinos.
Shortly after his initial "rapists" remark in his speech, the candidate expanded his comments beyond Mexico.
"It's coming from more than Mexico," he added. "It's coming from all over South and Latin America..."
In an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, Trump responded to his previous claims that the Mexican government was purposefully sending undocumented criminals over the border.
When asked to provide evidence for his claim that Latino immigrants crossing the border were rapists on CNN's "The Situation Room," Trump told host Don Lemon he got his information from a Fusion article.
When Lemon corrected him -- explaining that article actually said 80 percent of women and girls from Central America are raped by human smugglers, gang members other migrants or government authorities while immigrating to the U.S. -- Trump shot back dismissing the victims and suggesting Latino immigrants were the ones raping the victims.
Busted. Donald Trump deleted this tweet attacking Jeb Bush over his Mexican wife: pic.twitter.com/nD95099uGQ
— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) July 6, 2015
Donald Trump retweeted (and then deleted) a comment meant as a jab to fellow GOP candidate Jeb Bush. The tweet suggested that Bush would have more lenient views on immigration reform because of his Mexican-born wife, Columba.
"@YoungYoung54: @JeriHyatt @megynkelly @JebBush So true. Jeb Bush is crazy, who cares that he speaks Mexican, this is America, English !!"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2015
Sadly, the overwhelming amount of violent crime in our major cities is committed by blacks and hispanics-a tough subject-must be discussed.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2013
Trump first tweeted statistics that broke down New York City shooting suspects by race and ethnicity, citing Fox's Bill O'Reilly as a source.
Minutes later he tweeted again, correlating race and ethnicity with violent crime across the country. In response, media critic Eric Deggans wrote in the Tampa Bay Times:
"There is no doubt that violent crime is a serious problem in communities of color. But connecting it to race in such a blunt and unfair fashion seems more about blaming certain kinds of people than solving the problem."
