Trump Conglomerate Extends Olive Branch to Hispanic Media
Leaders of the conglomerate that runs Donald Trump's golf courses, hotels and other businesses apparently want to bury the hatchet with Hispanic media and have asked to meet with a watchdog group against anti-Latino bias in news and entertainment, Politico reported.
Alex Nogales, the head of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said he received a call last week from Lawrence Glick, executive vice president of strategic development at the Trump Organization. It was not the first time conglomerate managers had wanted to have a word with Nogales, he said, but the tone they struck was markedly different.
"[The first phone call] was to tell us if we continued our actions against his golf courses that he would sue us. ... We had another call from another outside attorney [working for Trump] wanting to change the story of what he had said about Mexicans, that he was not against Mexican people that he was talking about the government, the most ridiculous assertion that could possibly be made," Nogales said.
"The third time, last week, was 'Let's get together to talk so we can solve our differences,'" said Nogales of the Trump campaign's most recent overtures.
Trump, who upset many in the Hispanic community when he kicked off his presidential campaign by claiming that Mexico sent criminals and rapists to the United States, has received widespread and often critical coverage in Latino media. During a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border last month, he famously clashed with "Noticiero Telemundo" co-anchor Jose Diaz-Balart, the Washington Post recalled.
"You're with Telemundo, and Telemundo should be ashamed," the real estate tycoon told Diaz-Balart, when the anchor quizzed him about his remarks' effect on Hispanic voters. "I'm suing Univision for $500 million, and I'm going to tell you - we're going to win a lot of money because of what they've done. You're finished," Trump concluded.
But now, Trump may be realizing that his attacks on Latinos - and Hispanic media - may be bad both for business and his presidential aspirations, Nogales mused.
"They're much clearer in Spanish language media," Nogales told Politico, regarding Trump's reputation. "They're calling a spade a spade, and they're saying this man is a racist."
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