Donald Trump Trolls GOP and Latinos with Joe Arpaio

Donald Trump took the stage in the North Ballroom at the Phoenix Convention Center to a crowd that he at first claimed was 15,000 strong on Facebook, then 20,000 on Twitter. Media outlets repeated tha...
Donald Trump Trolls GOP and Latinos with Joe Arpaio
Written by Mike Tuttle
  • Donald Trump took the stage in the North Ballroom at the Phoenix Convention Center to a crowd that he at first claimed was 15,000 strong on Facebook, then 20,000 on Twitter. Media outlets repeated that figure dutifully.

    Later digging discovered that the entire ballroom only has the capacity for 4,100 people.

    Some are starting to get the feeling that Donald Trump is trumping up his claims about a lot of things. The man has owned hotels. He knows how to get a real figure for how many will fit into a ballroom.

    Trump’s statements about Mexicans set many people against him. Yet he claims he will sweep to the GOP nomination and the presidency with the Latino vote behind him. And how is he going about that?

    By bringing in Arizona’s own Sheriff Joe Arpaio, of course.

    Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio was a firebrand a few years back when his racial profiling caught the attention of the nation and the federal authorities. In 2013, a federal judge ordered Arpaio to stop unconstitutionally profiling Latinos. He did not stop. Now he faces a contempt of court charge. A special federal monitor has been assigned to his department and he is no longer allowed to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

    Yet, Donald Trump shared a stage with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Later, in a Breitbart interview, Arpaio said of Trump:

    “I understand the fence, everybody talks about the fence. I would hope that maybe he would consider talking to the President of Mexico over a beer and try to get the law enforcement people — border patrol or military across the border — to work with the army and Federales. That’s what I’d do when I was the director in Mexico City and it worked perfectly.”

    With friends like these, Donald Trump has a funny way of showing he wants the Latino vote. His actions are alienating many from taking the GOP seriously. Senator Leslie Graham has said that Trump is doing damage to the GOP with his antics. But Mike Huckabee disagrees.

    When asked recently if he thought Trump was hurting the GOP brand, Huckabee responded, “I don’t think so.”

    “I don’t think that people ought to wring their hands that Donald Trump is in there,” Huckabee went on. “He’ll say things differently than most of us, he’ll say things that maybe some of us wouldn’t say, but he has as much right to be on the stage and speak his message as any of us.”

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