Trump Univision Town Hall Falls Flat as Latinos Were Having None of His Bullshit

Donald Trump waltzing into a Univision town hall thinking he could charm his way into Latino hearts was about as predictable as it was insulting. You could almost hear the gears turning behind that familiar smirk: Just smile, say something about loving tacos, and talk about jobs—they’ll eat it up.

But the audience didn’t buy it. Not this time. Not ever, really.

This is a community that was dragged through the mud under his administration: family separations at the border, babies in cages, demonizing immigrants as criminals and rapists, and the constant dog-whistling about "invasions" from the South. Trump may have hoped a friendly backdrop would soften the crowd, but the attendees didn’t let up, calling him out on his nonsense with sharp questions and skeptical expressions that made it clear they weren’t falling for the same tired performance.

It wasn’t just the questions—it was the energy. The moment Trump tried to position himself as the savior of the Latino community by boasting about jobs and low unemployment, the audience’s response was more bemused than impressed. People lived through his presidency, and they know firsthand that a paycheck is meaningless when families are torn apart, kids are traumatized, and racism is emboldened.

Latinos don’t need to be told that unemployment stats rose and fell. What they remember—and can’t forget—is the targeting of their communities. It was all there, plain as day. Throwing out numbers like candy wasn’t going to change that.

Trump really lost the room when he had the audacity to say with a straight face that on January 6, “Ashli Babbitt died, no one died,” referring to the rioter shot while trying to breach the Capitol. The crowd’s reaction was a mixture of disbelief and disgust, garnering this reaction from the man who asked him the original question:

And this one from women in the audience:

The video of this interaction has gone viral.

Trump’s mental gymnastics were jaw-dropping. What about the Capitol Police officers who died in the aftermath, some by suicide, after enduring the trauma of that day? What about the 140 officers injured, the bear spray, the broken windows, and the gallows erected outside? A number of them were Latino. Their lives don’t matter?

And let’s be real—Trump didn’t come to apologize or even acknowledge his damage. He came to manipulate. His attempts to spin the past, as though his actions had been misunderstood, were transparent. It was like a bad rerun of a show no one wanted to see again.

This audience knew exactly what was going on. Trump’s “I love Hispanics” routine—peppered with praise for Latinos as “hardworking people”—came off as condescending at best. For four years, Trump rode the wave of nationalist rhetoric, and his sudden pivot to niceties at the town hall was less a shift in character and more a desperate strategy to win back voters. But the crowd wasn’t giving out second chances.

Trump’s racism wasn’t an aberration—it was the cornerstone of his policies. And the people sitting in that room knew it because they’ve been living it. They understood the message beneath the surface; they’ve been hearing it loud and clear for years. Latinos know that politicians love to pivot between praise and punishment, and they know when the praise isn’t genuine.

What Trump and many politicians still fail to understand is that Latinos are not a monolith. Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans are only but a few of these communities who have different histories, but they share an understanding of when someone is trying to play them. Trump walked into that town hall thinking he could smooth over the rough edges, but the audience had already seen too much to be charmed.

Accountability is the bare minimum, and in the end, it wasn’t just about Trump’s policies—it was about his refusal to own up to them. You could feel the frustration in the room: frustration with a man who insists he was misunderstood, frustration with a political system that allows people like him to even consider a second term, and frustration with the lack of accountability.

When the questions came—about the border wall, about family separations, about his plans for Dreamers, about the racism—Trump deflected, dodged, and lied, as if people wouldn’t remember the truth. But the thing about truth is that it sticks, no matter how much spin you try to put on it. This is a community that remembers. They remember the cruelty of children ripped from their parents’ arms. They remember the cold indifference toward Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. They remember the hate crimes that spiked during his presidency, fueled by his rhetoric. Most importantly, they remember who stood by and who looked away.

The audience wasn’t looking for charm or empty promises. They were looking for accountability. And they weren’t getting it. Trump can try to rewrite history all he wants, but people remember. Latinos remember. He tried to con the Univision audience, but they were having none of his shit.