A supportive crowd celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month at the White House on Monday, with invited attendees shouting “viva Trump!” and chanting “four more years!”
“We’re out there fighting for you, that I’ll tell you,” President Trump said during the intimate East Room event.
“What a lot of spirit, but I know that about you,” Trump told the enthusiastic crowd. “I know that. I know all about your spirit. You’ve got great spirit.”
Trump boasted of low unemployment among Latinos and pledged to help Puerto Rico rebuild from last year’s hurricanes, calling to the podium the territory’s lieutenant governor, Luis Rivera Marín.
“We are blessed because you’re our president!” Vietnam War veteran Daniel Cortez, who sang the national anthem, shouted at Trump.
“I propose we have an American heritage month,” said Cuban-American restaurant owner Irina Vilariño, one of the guests asked to speak.
“We’ll need it,” Trump said.
Trump appeared at ease and joked frequently, complementing his own Spanish pronunciations. He did not address an ongoing controversy involving an alleged sexual assault attempt by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh while he was in high school.
Trump highlighted prominent Hispanic members of his administration, including Labor Secretary Alex Acosta and U.S. Treasurer Jovita Carranza, telling the little-known Carranza “that’s a very big position.”
Largely prepared remarks emphasized unity, with Trump praising the quarter-million Hispanic Americans in the military and 1.5 million Hispanic veterans. He refrained from controversial topics such as building a wall along the border with Mexico and his attempted cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“We are all one people, we are all part of one great American family, and we are all in this together – saluting one flag, singing one anthem, and pledging allegiance to one nation under God,” he said.
