Trump Apparently Still Had Some Hispanic Surrogates to Lose, and He Lost Them

Earlier this week, we learned that there was a breaking point at which Huma Abedin would leave her creepy-ass husband, and maybe that triggered some cosmic energy avalanche that gave others the courage to leave their comically terrible, prison-like situations.

A headline like the one I saw this morning on Politico’s, “Several Hispanic Trump surrogates reconsider support,” begs an obvious question: What the hell were they still doing there in the first place??? Like, how are you Hispanic and still a Trump supporter on Aug. 31?

Then again, it’s probably best not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and just be happy that they’ve finally come to their senses. The two main characters here are Jacob Monty, who was on Trump’s Hispanic Advisory Council, and Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Lationo Partnership for Conservative Principals. Monty actually resigned his post after Trump’s terrifying immigration speech last night, while Aguilar has announced that he’ll probably revoke his endorsement.

Here’s what Monty had to say:

“I was a strong supporter of Donald Trump when I believed he was going to address the immigration problem realistically and compassionately. What I heard today was not realistic and not compassionate. When we met [earlier in August] he was going to approach this issue with a realistic plan, a compassionate plan, with a plan that was not disruptive to the immigrants that were here that were not lawbreakers. He didn’t deliver any of that.”

And Aguilar:

“It’s so disappointing because we feel we took a chance, a very risky chance. We decided to make a big U-turn to see if we could make him change. We thought we were moving in the right direction … we’re disappointed. We feel misled…I can tell you there’s a real possibility we will withdraw support from Donald Trump because of that disappointing speech.”

I totally get it—it’s always so disappointing when a politician that has clearly been stirring up white anger against the Hispanic population in ways both subtle and overt turns out to be kind of dangerous for Hispanics. Talk about blindsided!

Trump’s speech, in which he advocated for mass expedited deportations of immigrants with even minor criminal offenses, along with punishments for sanctuary cities, the end of any hope of amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and the end of Obama policies like protection for Dream Act children—those who were born overseas but moved to America before the age of 16 and have been in the country for at least five years.

In a lot of ways, last night was the scariest Trump performance yet, and all joking aside, the fact that even the most dyed-in-the-wool Hispanic conservatives are starting to abandon him speaks volumes. If last night was an attempt by Trump to shore up his white conservative base as Hillary tries to poach stray Republicans, it had the counter-effect of alienating his last Hispanic allies and shrinking his base of potential voters. That, we can only hope, is a critical error.