Pop singer Ricky Martin says he’s had enough of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and wants the Latino community to unite in opposition to the businessman.
“The fact that an individual like Donald Trump, a candidate for the presidency of the United States for the Republican party, has the audacity to continue to gratuitously harass the Latin community makes my blood boil,” the Puerto Rican entertainer wrote in a Spanish language op-ed for Univision Wednesday, according to a Billboard translation.
According to Martin, Trump’s interaction with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who he called “one of the most beloved and respected Latinos in world media” was the final straw.
“Jorge Ramos was doing HIS JOB as a journalist at a press conference in which he appeared freely and democratically, representing one of the most important Latin television networks in the world and with the same right to freely exercise his profession as all other journalists,” he wrote (emphasis Martin’s). “But this new character in American politics verbally attacks him and ejects him from the press conference.”
The “Livin’ La Vida Loca” singer did not note that Trump allowed Ramos back into the press conference and engaged in a relatively lengthy conversation with him. Regardless, Martin argued that the initial move to eject Ramos from the press conference did not surprise him.
What surprises him, Martin wrote, is that Latinos are not rising up against Trump for what he says are attacks on their dignity.
“Enough is enough!” Martin wrote.
The singer went on to call on Latinos to unite against Trump.
“We have to defeat the power that Trump pretends to have over Latinos, anchored in low rhetoric and xenophobic speech, which his campaign team is convinced works for him,” he wrote. “Let’s show that our Latin race is to be respected, let’s not allow a political hopeful to plant his campaign in insult and humiliation.”
A Quinnipiac University National poll released Thursday has Trump leading the Republican field by double digit margins.