Eva Longoria Slams Donald Trump, Says She's More American Than He Is

"The fact that he uses the word ‘Latino’ to be synonymous with ‘illegal’ is a mistake."
Eva Longoria at the The Paley Center for Media's Hollywood tribute to Hispanic achievements in Oct. 2016.
Eva Longoria at the The Paley Center for Media's Hollywood tribute to Hispanic achievements in Oct. 2016.
Paul Archuleta via Getty Images

Eva Longoria is taking Donald Trump to task for his offensive comments about Latinos.

The actress, director and activist, who is of Mexican heritage, is the head of the Eva Longoria Foundation, a charity aimed at promoting education and entrepreneurship for Latinas in the U.S.

“The fact that he uses the word ‘Latino’ to be synonymous with ‘illegal’ is a mistake,” she told Ocean Drive Magazine in an interview published Friday. “I’m ninth-generation American—I’m way more American than Donald Trump!” (Trump’s mother, Mary Anne Trump, came to the United States from Scotland at the age of 18, according to the New York Times; his paternal grandparents immigrated from Germany.)

Since the beginning of his campaign, the Republican presidential nominee has faced strong criticism from the Latino community for his unceasing barrage of hateful comments. Recently, at the final presidential debate, he portrayed undocumented immigrants as violent criminals coming across the U.S.-Mexico border, referring to them as “bad hombres.” This was incorrect for two reasons. For one thing, not all undocumented immigrants are from Mexico or Latin America. And native-born Americans are more likely than immigrants to commit crimes.

Longoria also voiced her support for Hillary Clinton, whom she has vocally endorsed (despite someone mysteriously slapping her image on a pro-Trump flyer earlier this month.) She said she doesn’t really get why people don’t find the Democratic nominee “likable.”

“I know her on a personal level, and she is one of the most likable, amazing, engaged, compassionate human beings,” she said. Even so, she added that quality leadership, not likability, should be what voters actually care about.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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