Billionaire and 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s campaign says there are “more genuine and productive ways” to communicate with America’s Hispanic community than going through and empowering the pro-amnesty U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC).
Trump’s campaign team comments come as Trump will bypass a question-and-answer session hosted by the USHCC on Oct. 8—and will instead be speaking directly to Americans at a campaign rally in Nevada, where he expects to have a “capacity crowd.” This comes after the USHCC spokesman attacked Trump in an interview with Politico on Thursday—and after the group asked Trump for tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in a fee.
“Donald J. Trump today announced he will not be participating in the October 8th USHCC (United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce) Q&A, as requested by its President and CEO Javier Palomarez,” a Trump spokesperson said in an email.
Mr. Trump will be speaking to a capacity crowd at a campaign rally in Nevada on that date. Additionally, Mr. Palomarez continues to leverage the national media attention surrounding Mr. Trump to benefit his organization and exploit Mr. Trump to enlist additional support and increase interest and revenue in his coalition including asking Mr. Trump to join his chamber for a fee amounting to between $25,000 and $2 million dollars, which Mr. Trump refused to do. Mr. Trump remains committed to reaching out to the Hispanic Community in more genuine and productive ways as he continues to share his vision to Make America Great Again.
USHCC’s spokesman Ammar Campa-Najjar attacked Trump’s campaign for the presidency and his ideas for America in an interview with Politico on Thursday as “sad,” “absurd” and “broken.”
“We’re not going to go easy on him,” Campa-Najjar said in the Politico interview about the-then-still-thought-to-be-happening Oct. 8 event. “A lot of people think it’s just going to be this positive thing.”
“I’ve been tight-lipped for a while, but I’ve got to speak up now,” Campa-Najjar added. “It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad that this man is leading in the polls and that this is his idea for a fiscally responsible, fair and feasible plan for dealing with immigrants.”
Campa-Najjar attacked Trump’s immigration reform plan—which would build a Mexican-funded wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, deport every illegal alien in America, and put a focus on American workers rather than special interests when it comes to future immigration levels—in the interview as well.
“The deporting thing is so absurd that no one can get behind it and he needs to explain how that’s going to work,” he said.
Campa-Najjar also accused Trump of being unrealistic when he claims—as he often does on the campaign trail—that he’s doing well with Hispanics.
“When we talk to them, they give the impression they’re doing so well with Hispanics: ‘Oh Hispanics love me,’ and I think that’s, at best, out of touch with reality,” Campa-Najjar said of the Trump campaign.
The group’s stated immigration plan on its website, however, is exactly the opposite of Trump’s immigration reform plan. The USHCC wants to “pass a comprehensive bill to harness the economic enrichment immigrates bring,” and “reform the visa system to attract STEM talent as well as EB-5 economic investment” while creating “market-driven work programs and temporary visas,” and more pro-amnesty standpoints.
Trump, meanwhile, wants to focus on security first—and on the well-being of all Americans negatively impacted by high levels of foreigners in the U.S. labor pool, something that drives wages down and unemployment up.
Trump’s campaign’s point that the USHCC doesn’t speak for the Hispanic community—and that the Hispanic community, which is not a monolithic voting bloc entirely supportive of open borders immigration policies—is yet another reason why he’s head-and-shoulders ahead of the rest of the 2016 GOP field. He’s turning the establishment narrative that the loudest politically-motivated minority of a particular ethnic group somehow speaks for everyone from that ethnic group on its head. Trump has skyrocketed in the polls every time he lands—whether by his own doing or the doing of someone else—in one of these types of situations. Where things go from here could be interesting.
USHCC is certainly looking for a fight with Trump. When he announced he wasn’t going to the event, Campa-Najjar issued a scathing statement attacking the GOP frontrunner—alleging he wanted to change the rules of the forum for some kind of special treatment.
“Mr. Trump was unwilling to abide by the terms and conditions of the USHCC’s Presidential Candidate Q&A Series – the same rules that all participants have previously followed,” Campa-Najjar said. “The USHCC refused to change the format of the forum, show any favoritism, exclude any issues or topics, or grant any immunity from objective scrutiny of his policies.”
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