Trump, in South Florida, warns the US could become like Venezuela
MIAMI — President Donald Trump was in Miami-Dade County on Friday, where he spent about an hour courting one of Florida’s most important voting blocs, Hispanic voters — and predicted catastrophe if voters “put the wrong people in office,” envisioning a scenario in which the U.S. “rapidly” becomes a failed country like Venezuela.
“We could be a Venezuela, too,” Trump said. “Venezuela 15 years ago was a very wealthy country. … It could happen here. This would be a Venezuela on major steroids.”
Doral is home to a large Venezuelan community, and Trump said he’s taken action — which hasn’t been successful — to end the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Trump said Joe Biden met with Maduro, “showered him with compliments” and “it was all just lovey dovey, and nothing happened. And I imposed the toughest sanctions ever imposed in Latin America.”
Trump has talked tough about Venezuela during his presidency, but both nationally and in South Florida, Democrats have spoken out as strongly against Maduro as Republicans.
Trump said Friday’s event was “about Hispanics and the relationship that we have. We have an incredible relationship,” adding that “the opposition has not been good to Hispanics. He’s been very bad to Hispanics.”
Reading from a list of criticisms of Biden, Trump said his opponent hurt the pharmaceutical industry in Puerto Rico and served as vice president in the administration that normalized relations with Cuba. Trump promised “wonderful deals” involving Latin American countries, but said they would “have to wait till after the election.”
Trump asserted that the Democrats “are stone cold crazy,
what they will do to our country,” claimed rioting is “endemic” to Democratic-run cities, and complained that the probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and whether his campaign colluded with Russia amounted to “three years of crap.”
He briefly touched on the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that everything was going well in the U.S. until “China sent us the plague.”
Trump who began his 2016 campaign by declaring that many Mexican immigrants were “rapists,” wants to maximize his standing, and courting Hispanic voters in Florida has been a longtime priority of the Trump campaign.
Latinos for Trump was launched by Vice President Mike Pence on a visit to Miami-Dade County in 2019. “Hola Miami,” Pence began, before offering repeated praise for Trump and “our great Latino and Hispanic communities.”
In addition to Friday’s event in Doral, Trump:
■ Has dangled the possibility of appointing a Cuban-American Floridian, federal appeals court Judge Barbara Lagoa, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
■ Released $13 billion last week — less than two months before Election Day — in aid to Puerto Rico for damage from Hurricane Maria, which struck three years ago, after years of actions disparaging the island and musing about selling it. Puerto Ricans are an important voting bloc in Central Florida.
■ Announced additional financial restrictions on Cuba at a White House event on Wednesday featuring veterans of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of. Cuban-Americans are an important voting bloc in Miami-Dade County.