Donald Trump’s success in attracting a broad vary of People to vote Republican, together with among the many Latino group, was key to his presidential election victory in 2024.
Now in 2026, Trump’s distaste for the all-Spanish-language Tremendous Bowl halftime efficiency by Unhealthy Bunny — an American citizen from Puerto Rico — suggests scoring factors with Latino voters is now not a excessive precedence for the president.
“No person understands a phrase this man is saying, and the dancing is disgusting,” Trump stated in a social media publish on Sunday. He known as the halftime present “an affront to the Greatness of America.”
Polls recommend Trump has been dropping Latino assist in current months, and observers say his response to the halftime present will not do something to assist his Republican Get together staunch the bleeding forward of essential midterms.
Clarissa Martinez, a vice chairman of UnidosUS, the most important Latino civil rights and advocacy group within the nation, questions Trump’s choice to trash Unhealthy Bunny’s efficiency, which was considered by an viewers practically as giant because the variety of People who voted within the final presidential election.
“It is actually not a superb political transfer,” Martinez advised CBC Information in an interview.
Andrew Chang explains why U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Unhealthy Bunny’s half-time efficiency on the Tremendous Bowl and the way it matches into a bigger sample.
Pictures offered by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Pictures
“Not solely was [the halftime show] a missed alternative for the president, he made it worse for himself along with his response to it,” stated Martinez.
Martinez says Trump’s disparagement of Unhealthy Bunny rejected the truth that the performer is American and reaffirmed the present concern amongst many U.S. Hispanics that their citizenship is being questioned amid the months-long Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps throughout the nation.
‘Tonight exhibits they’re toast’
Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who co-founded an anti-Trump political motion committee known as the Lincoln Venture, pointed to Trump’s publish and related reactions from others in his MAGA motion on Sunday as proof that the Republican Get together will “lose so massive” within the midterms.
“Republicans nonetheless don’t notice their solely slight probability of presumably holding onto Congress in November is by stemming the collapse of Latino males beneath thirty. Tonight exhibits they’re toast,” Madrid wrote on X.
Outstanding MAGA devoted who joined the social media refrain of disapproval included:
- Megyn Kelly: “I like my half time exhibits in English from [people] who love America.”
- Laura Loomer: “Completely disgraceful. There’s nothing American about any of this.”
- Nick Adams: “Somebody wants to inform Unhealthy Bunny he is in America. That is an abomination.”
Trump’s features in Latino communities was one of many surprises of the 2024 election. The Republican candidate was the selection of 48 per cent of Hispanic voters, simply three share factors behind his Democrat rival Kamala Harris and a bounce of 12 share factors from his 2020 complete, based on information compiled by Pew Analysis Heart.
That assist got here not simply despite Trump’s promise to get robust on unlawful immigration, however partially due to it, based on Martinez.
“Hispanic voters wish to see a functioning immigration system, and there was plenty of concern in regards to the chaos that many people had been seeing on the border beneath the earlier [Biden] administration, whether or not or not the administration was solely accountable,” she stated.
Many Latinos supported Trump on immigration
“The Republicans and President Trump orchestrated a really intense marketing campaign on that concern, and that was one of many points the place they really bested Democrats amongst Hispanic voters,” stated Martinez.
That coverage helped Trump carry border districts with giant Hispanic populations that had lengthy leaned Democrat, simply as his marketing campaign give attention to combatting the rising value of residing helped enhance his attraction to working class Latino voters across the nation.
Political observers within the U.S. additionally level out that Latino voters are on no account a monolith, with sturdy and long-standing assist for the Republican Get together amongst, for example, Hispanic social conservatives and anti-Castro Cuban exiles.
However now there’s proof that the Trump administration’s heavy-handed immigration crackdowns away from the border, in addition to its failure to rein in costs, are hurting the Republicans amongst Hispanic voters.
A ballot carried out by the Economist/YouGov in January simply after the Renee Good taking pictures in Minneapolis discovered simply 28 per cent of Hispanic respondents authorized of the way in which Trump is dealing with his job as president, down from 41 per cent in February of final yr.
The survey, carried out by web-based interviews, included 231 Hispanic residents as half of a bigger ballot of 1,602 American adults.
One other bigger ballot of three,000 Latino registered voters nationwide discovered 64 per cent of respondents strongly or considerably disapprove of Trump’s efficiency as president, versus 31 per cent saying they strongly or considerably approve.
That ballot was carried out in October 2025, which leaves open the potential that views have since modified, given the large consideration to the administration’s Operation Metro Surge immigration crackdown in Minnesota and the taking pictures deaths of two U.S. residents by federal brokers.
Amongst those that advised the pollsters they voted for Trump in 2024 election, 13 per cent stated they might not achieve this if that they had the possibility to vote over once more.
Puerto Rican musician Unhealthy Bunny was a giant winner at this yr’s Grammy Awards and used the chance to talk out towards U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies.
The ballot additionally discovered that 52 per cent of respondents intend to vote for Democrats within the 2026 Congressional midterms, whereas 28 per cent stated they plan to vote for Republicans.
Whereas the ballot suggests financial points comparable to inflation and jobs are high considerations for Latino voters, immigration coverage and presidential overreach additionally registered as vital.
The October ballot, carried out by BSP Analysis and Shaw & Co. Analysis polling companies for UnidosUS, used a hybrid methodology the place respondents had been reached through a mixture of reside phone interviews, text-message invites and on-line panels, with interviews carried out in each English and Spanish.
Monica Villalobos, president and CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says she believes the Trump administration’s efficiency over the previous yr will lead to a giant shift in how the group votes.
The chamber’s members “really feel a way of betrayal by this administration, given its extreme overreach,” Villalobos advised Politico final month.
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