Trump flirts with Hispanic voters to the rhythm of salsa: ‘Kamala, qué mala eres’

One day Donald Trump tells Latino immigrants that he will mass deport them back to their home countries, and the next he uses a popular reggaeton singer to attract votes from the Hispanic community, one of the most coveted constituencies as the presidential campaign enters the homestretch with a technical tie between the candidates.

The latest attempt by Trump’s campaign was to circulate a video where the Republican candidate seems to dance to the rhythm of a well-known salsa song from the 1990s that no longer says “Juliana, qué mala eres” (Juliana, you’re so bad) but rather “Kamala, qué mala eres.” It is not the first time that the former president’s team has resorted to music to flirt with Latino voters.

In the 33-second video broadcast on X, Trump, wearing his usual Make America Great Again cap, appears on a golf cart announcing that he has “a great playlist.” Next, the salsa group Dark Latin Groove, of Puerto Rican descent and one of the most famous Latin music bands of the 1990s, plays their famous 1996 track “Juliana,” a hit that was originally composed by the Dominican Cuco Valoy. Images of Trump moving his arms and feet at various campaign events are set against the song, giving the appearance that he is dancing to the beat. One image shows Kamala Harris laughing out loud, the same laugh that Trump has described in the past as “the laugh of a crazy person.”

For the former president’s team, this is an old strategy. It did not start when a few days ago he invited Puerto Rican reggaeton singers Anuel AA and Justin Quiles to grab the microphone at his rally in Pennsylvania so they could applaud and publicly support him. Or when he invited Nicky Jam to go on stage in Las Vegas. Back in 2020, a song by the Cuban musical group Los 3 de La Habana became part of his campaign when he was fighting Joe Biden for the presidency. The song, which said “Oh, for God’s sake, I’m going to vote for Donald Trump” or “Do it for your families, Latinos for Donald Trump!”, resonated in Florida, where Trump’s anti-communist rhetoric is music to the ears of a large part of the Cuban community.

The new video, released as celebrations for Hispanic Heritage Month kick off, is an obvious nod to the 17.5 million Latino voters who will predictably go to the polls in November, a “record” number representing 6.5% more than in 2020, according to projections by the National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials (Naleo), which said that this year more than one in 10 voters will be Latino.

Trump and his paradoxical fight for the Latino vote

Donald Trump’s campaign has repeatedly addressed the Hispanic electorate, a diverse group of which 57% is likely to support Kamala Harris in November, according to a BSP Research survey. As much as it has been said that the Latino vote is increasingly leaning Republican lately, the majority is still on the Democratic side in the presidential race.

Even so, the war is on and Trump is not willing to lose the 15% of the electorate that is made up of Hispanics, even though he has called immigrants “criminals” or compared them to the character Hannibal Lecter, from the famous film The Silence of the Lambs.

Things have changed a lot since 2016, and the Hispanic community in the U.S. is increasingly playing a leading role. If eight years ago Trump did not hesitate to say that this was a country “in which we speak English, not Spanish,” now he is wasting no time in launching the coalition Latino Americans for Trump, which since June has brought together prominent Republicans in spheres such as education, sports, communications and politics.

Harris’ campaign is not lagging far behind. Democrats are aware that they cannot afford to lose Latinos from their ranks — in 2020 during a Florida event for Biden, they played the mega hit Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, to date the most listened-to song on YouTube —and to this end, they have invested millions of dollars in ads in Spanish, such as Luchadora, a video launched a few weeks ago that highlights Harris’ track record in her attempt to fix the problems at the border.

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