Over the years, when billionaire TV personality Donald Trump made occasional threats to run for president, it was always more of a stunt to help promote some new book or show.

But while Trump may believe that all publicity is good publicity, the 69-year-old real estate magnate may finally be checking those assumptions after controversial statements about Mexico and immigrants he made while announcing his bid for president began showing the potential to cost him money.

Creating Controversy

In his announcement that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination for 2016 two weeks ago, Trump alienated potential Latino voters and lit a firestorm of criticism from pundits and celebrities, Latino and not.

Touching on his views on immigration in the speech, as we previously reported, Trump declared, “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us.

"They are bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists," Trump continued. "And some, I assume, are good people."

Feeling the Consequences

No longer wanting to be associated with Trump, the largest Spanish language TV network, Univision, dropped the 2015 Miss USA Pageant (of which Trump is a co-owner) from its programming schedule last week, while a bevy of Latino artists including J Balvin, Cristián De La Fuente, Roselyn Sanchez, and Zuleyka Rivera similarly withdrew from participating in Trump's beauty pageant.

Although the backlash was immediate, Trump didn't back down initially, saying late last week, “There is nothing to apologize for.”

As if to prove the sincerity of his unapologetic stance, this weekend Trump announced he had banned Univision executives from his Miami resort and golf course and was planning to sue the Latino network for a "tremendous amount of money."

This kind of bluster and indifference to the feelings of a vital and ever-growing part of the American constituency did not sit well with the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda.

As reported by CNN, the NHLA has called on NBC Universal to drop the Miss USA telecast as well -- and to basically send one particularly familiar message back the man who coined the catchphrase “You’re fired.”

Felix Sanchez, chairman and co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, later expanded the call to "dump Trump" to the Republican establishment in an op-ed published by CNN over the weekend.

Trump's (Attempt at) Backtracking

On Sunday, displaying his best attempt at the time-honored political skill of backtracking, speaking with CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump tried to quell the media firestorm he started. "I like Mexico. I love the Mexican people," he insisted.

"I do business with the Mexican people," he went on, "but you have people coming through the border that are from all over. And they're bad. They're really bad."

Attempting to clarify his remarks, but likely digging himself deeper into controversy, Trump continued, "You have people coming in, and I'm not just saying Mexicans.

"I'm talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists. ... They're coming into this country,” added Trump. He then asserted that Mexico was treating the United States as if it were made up of "stupid people," adding that China was "even worse."

It could only be described as backtracking "Trump-style."

In the same clip (watch below), Trump also touched on his proposal to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, though the perennial candidate for the Republican presidential ticket offered no details on how he would force another country to bankroll his latest construction project -- other than saying, "I would do something very severe."

Given the way he launched his campaign, at least there's no questioning Trump's gift for severity.