Nicolai Haugsted
Trump interrupts Hispanic Heritage celebration with lengthy detour about everything else.
Donald Trump gathered supporters at the White House Wednesday for an event carrying a straightforward assignment: celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.
Getting to that assignment took a while.
Before seriously turning his attention to the occasion, the president spent roughly 20 minutes bouncing through foreign policy, the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, his enormous new White House ballroom and even New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart.
Trump eventually appeared to recognize where the coverage was heading.
“The press will say tomorrow, ‘he rambled for 20 minutes about unrelated subjects,’” Trump told the audience, according to The Independent.
Rather than changing course completely, however, Trump defended the detours as matters affecting the entire country — including Hispanic Americans.
Jaxson Dart somehow entered the conversation
Football eventually joined the itinerary.
Trump turned his attention toward Dart, the Giants quarterback who has publicly supported him and recently suffered an injury.
“You know, Jaxson Dart, he’s a little hurt right now, good quarterback. He endorsed Trump so heavily and he took a little heat from a rather liberal group of the people in the NFL,” Trump said.
“He’s a very handsome guy. I just want him to get better because we love him. He got hurt. It’s a dangerous game. They made it a little less dangerous with that ridiculous kickoff rule.”
Dart had little obvious connection to Hispanic Heritage Month.
Trump nevertheless continued through a speech that lasted nearly an hour and repeatedly wandered away from the event’s stated purpose. Reports from the event confirm that foreign policy, the ballroom project and midterm politics consumed substantial portions of his remarks.
Trump eventually got back to Hispanic voters
Electoral politics provided Trump with a route back toward the audience in front of him.
Hispanic voters represented one of Trump’s biggest electoral gains in 2024. Pew Research Center’s validated-voter analysis found that 48 percent of Hispanic voters supported Trump, compared with 36 percent in 2020 and 28 percent in 2016.
Trump was eager to remind his guests.
“I won all of the Hispanic cities,” Trump said while recalling a conversation with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
“I’m a politician that got the most, for a Republican who got the most but almost for anybody, got the most Hispanic votes of anybody.”
Trump also claimed he had won more Hispanic votes than “almost anybody that’s ever run for office” and said Abbott had told him he won “every” town along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Those sweeping claims go beyond the election results.
Trump made historic gains with Hispanic voters for a Republican presidential candidate, but a majority still supported Kamala Harris nationally in 2024, 51 percent to Trump’s 48 percent, according to Pew.
Those gains are suddenly looking less secure
Wednesday’s celebration came at an awkward political moment for Republicans.
Recent polling indicates Trump has lost substantial support among Hispanic Americans since returning to office.
Pew found in April that 66 percent of Hispanic voters who backed Trump in 2024 still approved of his job performance. That represented a 27-point fall from the 93 percent measured among the same group near the beginning of his second term.
Texas offers another warning sign.
A bipartisan September survey conducted for the Cook Political Report and TelevisaUnivision found Trump with a 33 percent approval rating among likely Hispanic voters in the state. Democratic candidates also held substantial advantages among those voters in major statewide contests.
Republicans therefore have a clear incentive to keep the coalition Trump assembled in 2024 together heading into November’s midterm elections.
Trump acknowledged Wednesday that his political messaging needs work.
“You gotta spread the word of how well we’re doing. We’ve got to turn this around,” Trump said.
“Our numbers are through the roof. We have the best numbers in the history of our country.”
The ballroom kept stealing the show
Politics eventually gave way to another Trump favorite: his White House ballroom.
Trump enthusiastically discussed the massive construction project and invited his Hispanic Heritage Month guests to become the first group to walk onto its floor.
Reports from the event say Trump told attendees that working on the ballroom “relaxes” him. He also described the project as including a military complex and drone port.
Construction remains unfinished, however, prompting Trump to offer his guests some safety advice.
“There’s a tunnel going to what I think will be the greatest ballroom ever built. It’s also a tremendous military complex with a drone port on top,” Trump said.
“You literally will be the first group ever to enter the premises. So be very careful. Don’t fall over the edge, because it’s a long way down.”
Trump then added a remark specifically about the people he was supposed to be celebrating.
“And only a Hispanic could survive that fall,” he said, drawing cheers from some people in the room.
“So, I’m not overly worried.”
