Hispanic audiences are polite. And serious. And appreciate straight answers.
Those were the impressions I gathered from the Univision town hall on Wednesday evening featuring Donald Trump, the second of two such forums featuring 2024’s presidential candidates. Trump appeared a little more than a week after Democrat cackling Kamala Harris had her turn on Univision, which, on balance, I think ended up being an advantage for Trump.
Both forums were made up of audience members posing questions to the candidates (with translation where needed). Trump, like Kamala did the week before, stood the entire time, opting not to sit on what he joked was the “most uncomfortable chair possible.” Being mobile and upright allowed Trump the chance to appear strong and capable as well as the ability to look directly at his questioners to try and win their votes.
For a one-hour program (including several lengthy commercial breaks), I thought there was a good mix of subject matter with questions on immigration (of course), climate change, gun control, abortion (a woman asked the candidate if he supported wife Melania’s recent announcement that she believed in the “right” to an abortion), and finally, to try and name three things that he admired about his opponent.
As I’ve observed a number of times, Trump’s business, entertainment and media background provided an excellent foundation for this type of event. The moderator and the questioners were exceedingly polite, thanking the candidate for taking their query and listening intently to his answers.
Why Trump continues to do well with Hispanic voters
Or why Trump continues to earn the support of Hispanic male voters, specifically. Polls throughout the cycle have indicated that Trump does much better with Hispanic folks than he did in 2020 or 2016 – or his “moderate” GOP establishment predecessors enjoyed with the group. This success flies in the face of establishment media commentators who’ve speculated that Trump’s harsh rhetoric concerning illegal immigration would turn this group off.
It doesn’t. News flash, liberal pundits: Hispanics don’t appreciate illegal immigration, either. Democrats like the potential to turn newcomers into votes, but the “legal” Latinos don’t enjoy the “migrants” taking their jobs, committing crimes or competing with them for housing or legitimate government benefits and services that they’ve earned along with everyone else who did what they were supposed to.
As has been argued before, the term “Latinos” encompasses individuals from different countries. They aren’t just Mexicans or El Salvadoreans or Hondurans or Nicaraguans. There’s no reason to believe that all Latinos favor illegal immigrants breaching the border and being allowed to stay through government policies designed to make it easy for lawbreakers to come and remain here.
Trump touted his business background and his ability to bring jobs to the economy, which is exactly what these people are searching for. Because he was already president for four years, Trump bragged about his being “the greatest economy in history” and indicated that everything was going great until COVID came to throw a wrench into the humming economic engine.
Trump promised to cut taxes for businesses – what he calls “positive taxation” -- but also to help American companies compete through tariffs and favorable treatment. Whereas Democrats offer lucrative but costly government goodies, Trump takes more of a whole of economy approach. Jobs will come through making the economy stronger, which will benefit the most people.
Similarly, Trump said he would reduce inflation through producing more energy. “We have more liquid gold underneath our feet than any other country”, and he intends to use it.
Meanwhile, on the “climate change” question, Trump explained that the best way to combat environmental ruin was to ensure that there was clean air and water and allow companies to create jobs. Basically, that it does no good to place shackles on the economy, especially when polluters like China spend little or no money on battling “climate change” (which Trump called global warming).
Eliminating government waste and fraud will be a major emphasis under Trump
Trump also took a question on what he intended to do to bring down the growing national debt, a subject rarely brought up these days. At least someone is worried about it – it turned out to be a young Hispanic woman who is about to enter the workforce. The candidate talked about economic growth being the best way to fight the debt monster, a solid, common sense strategy. Then, Trump mentioned Elon Musk offering to come in and lend his expertise on how to make government more efficient.
I’m not sure if everyone in the room perked up at that point, but clearly Trump’s friendship and time spent with Musk has done some good. Can you imagine Musk being placed in charge of making the government bureaucracy more accountable and competent?
They must be terrified!
In the process, Trump didn’t pander to the audience. He answered their questions directly, including a gentleman who asked about harvesting vegetables – if we don’t have illegal immigrants to do the work, who will do it? Trump responded that he is in favor of immigration, but it must be legal and comply with the country’s needs.
This reply probably won’t satisfy Democrats, the Republican establishment or even the Chamber of Commerce, but likely resonated with a populace that is sick to death of millions of people flowing in over the border without any control whatsoever.
What about all the Republicans who won’t support you?
Kamala Harris likes talking about it and mentioning the seemingly big group of former Trump staffers who no longer support him – including former vice president Mike Pence – so, what do you say to those people Mr. Trump?
The establishment media makes a big deal about former Republicans like Liz Cheney who are now in the other gal’s camp and doing rallies talking about how awful Trump is. Trump’s reply? 97% of Republicans back him now, and he earns enemies by liking to fire people. Pretty simple, no?
Trump said he’s drawn animosity through purging the deadwood of the Republican Party, and one of the things he learned from already being president was to be more careful in who he hires the next time around. Democrats rally around their nominee no matter who it is, whereas Trump seeks people who will work for the MAGA mission. Is that so unreasonable?
In all of this, Trump has become a much more complete candidate than he was eight – or even four – years ago. Be it through being prosecuted relentlessly or being shot at (as a target for assassins), but there’s a much humbler man who’s running for president in 2024. Trump still does his share of boasting, but in this type of town hall environment, he’s deferential and modest.
It seemed like the Hispanic audience appreciated Trump’s candor and straightforward answers.
Finally, a question on gun control
“What would you say to families of kids who were victims of school shooters”?
Trump responded by not only defending a citizen’s right to bear arms, but also pointed out that the places in the country that have the worst gun violence are the ones with the strictest gun laws. Would you ever hear Joe Biden or cackling Kamala Harris or Tim Walz admit such a thing?
Trump reasoned that most guns involved in crimes are illegal, so proposing to restrict the rights of legitimate gun owners would not result in fewer shootings, killings or a more secure population. Owning a gun for self-protection is a necessity in many places, and if there weren’t any guns – anarchy would ensue.
The most humorous moment came at the end when a woman asked Trump to name Kamala Harris’s three virtues… and Trump struggled to think of any, which elicited chuckles from the onlookers. Trump said it was the “hardest question all night”, but did manage to say something nice about his opponent. Kudos to the Republican for being able to come up with anything.
Trump “won” the evening. His final response only sealed the deal.
Trump meets with Hispanics in Miami and women – only – in Georgia
Ladies first.
Earlier in the day on Wednesday, Trump appeared in another type of town hall “debate”, this time hosted by Harris Faulkner of Fox News. This forum was unique in the sense that it was basically an interview between Faulkner and Trump before a live audience of only women (it was pre-recorded the night before).
It took place in Georgia before what appeared to be a mostly supportive group (one woman wore a Republican delegate hat) who presented questions to Trump in such a way as to elicit real responses from the candidate rather than having him try to slant his answers towards a particular targeted group. Not that Trump would try to do that! Yes, these were women voters, and almost all of them seemed to like Trump, but the format and semi-intimate setting in a reconditioned barn with soft lighting was such that the one-hour time allotment was more like a one-to-one conversation with each person than adversarial question and answer session.
Trump was asked about his plan for bringing prices down, which, as he’s indicated numerous times before, all comes down to working to bring energy prices lower. Whereas cackling Kamala Harris almost immediately delves into price gouging and going after businesses that are supposedly taking excessive profits, Trump instead jumps into the root of the problem, the prices themselves.
Trump also spent several questions talking about immigration, including how he planned to prevent migrant crime and make America safer immediately (Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s case was brought up). Trump replied that he intended to do away with sanctuary cities entirely if he is elected, and he will do so by executive order if necessary. He also plans to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to gain the authority for such an executive action. Will this bring constitutional challenges?
Another anticipated concern from the all-female audience involved abortion and the potential availability of IVF, which has garnered more discussion and concern than I envisioned the subject ever would. Trump said, correctly, that abortion has divided the country ever since Roe v. Wade was decided in the early 1970’s. This is true. But he reasoned that the Supreme Court took the issue away from the federal government, which “everyone wanted and agreed with.”
I don’t think everyone agrees on the topic, and therein lies the problem, however. Trump has bent over backwards to try and accommodate the abortion advocates on the issue, most likely in hopes of picking up a few percentage points of the women’s vote. I’m not sure this strategy will work, since his newer, more “moderate” stance could just as well alienate pro-life advocates. There are single-issue voters on the Pro-life side as well. It’s a delicate balance, but Trump has his stance, pretty much, take it or leave it.
On the whole, the program was fairly similar to the type of presentation Trump has done so many times before. Quite simply put, Trump excels in this environment. He leans forward in his chair when speaking, which conveys comfortability and familiarity for the audience. His frequent light-hearted comments put people at ease as well, and his answers, though occasionally repetitive, are not rehearsed.
Kamala Harris tends to say the same thing over and over again in responses memorized pretty much word for word. Trump doesn’t do this. Though he regularly returns to his themes of immigration enforcement and community safety (definitely with an all-female audience in mind), his off-the-cuff answers never sounded canned.
This spontaneous quality is what has allowed Trump to retain his popularity throughout his political career. If he doesn’t sound like a politician, it’s because he isn’t one. Even the most capable of office seekers must keep him or herself from lapsing into politician-speak. Trump doesn’t ever fall into the memorization trap. His answers contain some of the same elements – “I had the safest borders” or “I had no wars during my term in office”, but it all seems fresh and new when he words it differently.
Harris is trying to win over men’s votes by pandering to them. Trump hopes to improve his standing with women by relating to them, something Kamala certainly can’t ever do with men who aren’t ashamed of being men. Trump’s decades of doing real-life interviews taught him how to talk to people person-to-person. Trump’s appearance with Harris Faulkner demonstrated why he’s so effective in that setting. Does it work with everyone? No. But the people who like Trump will remain loyal to him.
Summing it up
Both the Univision town hall and the program moderated by Fox News’s Harris Faulkner brought out the best in Donald Trump. The longtime real estate developer and tabloid celebrity knows how to “work a room”. In this setting, he’s much more effective at connecting with voters than Kamala Harris is. Trump would do well to do as many of these town halls as he possibly can.
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