Trump slams Biden over Latin America policy in Miami interview

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Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Leadership Forum at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. Michael Wyke AP

Former President Donald Trump bragged about his gains with Hispanic voters in Miami in the 2020 election and slammed the Biden administration over its recent policy shifts in Cuba and Venezuela, during a prime-time interview with the Miami Spanish-language station, MegaTV.

During the interview, which was conducted by former Miami Mayor Toms Regalado from Mar-a-Lago and aired Thursday night dubbed in Spanish, Trump said he was honored to be backed by Cubans and Venezuelans in Miami when running in his failed reelection bid.

Im honored with whats going on with the Hispanic community towards me and the Republican Party, but I think even more so towards me, Trump said. You know, when you look at Miami and the amount of votes I got, nobody had ever seen something like that before.

Trumps appearance in Miami TV is not his first approach to friendly Latino media in recent months. In April, he had an interview with the new right-leaning outlet Americano Media. While he hasnt announced a run for president and wouldnt confirm a presidential run in 2024 beyond saying people would be very happy with his choice Trump has continued to hold rallies around the country and endorse candidates in Republican primaries.

And in South Florida, while Democrats have historically won Miami-Dade by 20-point margins or more, Biden won the county in 2020 by just eight points. Some polls suggest the rightward trend in Miami-Dade could hold for Democrats in the midterms.

Its very interesting, the Hispanic vote, Trump said. Ive gotten so much from them … Theyre hardworking, industrious people.

Speaking directly to critics of Bidens recent policy changes, Trump said that he had many meetings with Cuban and Venezuelan Americans to decide on his policies during his tenure, and claimed that good things were going to happen in regards to their countries.

Good things were about to happen and he comes in during a fraudulent election and gets rid of everything we were doing, said Trump, repeating unproven claims that his loss was the result of widespread election fraud.

Last week, the Biden administration announced it was relaxing travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba and restarted the Cuban Family Reunification Parole program. He also announced he would be easing sanctions on Venezuelas Nicols Maduro in exchange for a commitment to restart talks with the opposition.

Biden is also facing questions over the invitation list for the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, set to begin Monday, which the US is hosting for the first time since its inaugural session that gathered countries in the Western Hemisphere in Miami in 1994.

Regalado, who has his own show on MegaTV, asked Trump to rate President Joe Bidens policies towards Latin America, asking if he thought the US was losing historic allies throughout the hemisphere under Biden.

Whats happening now is that they dont respect our country anymore, Trump said. They respected our country a lot, but they dont respect our leaders or our country anymore. We were making a lot of progress, as you know, with many countries, with Colombia, with Brazil, with so many other countries. Getting along and they respected us just a few years ago. And now things are very different in Latin America.

Trump also said that he has a very good relationship with Gov. Ron DeSantis, another potential Republican presidential contender.

I have a very good relationship with Ron, said Trump, adding that before his endorsement to DeSantis, he was polling at 3%. Well see what happens, but I have a very good relationship with Ron.

This story was originally published June 3, 2022 12:02 AM.

Bianca Padr Ocasio is a political writer for the Miami Herald. She has been a Florida journalist for four years, covering everything from crime and courts to hurricanes and politics.

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