Trump’s Problems With Latinos Go Deeper Than the Economy

President Donald Trump’s problem with Latinos might run much deeper than just their dissatisfaction with the economy.

In a focus group of politically independent Latino men and women this week, seven voters — all of whom supported the president in 2024 but said they now had regrets about their decision — expressed a deep concern about Trump’s handling of the economy and cost-of-living issues. But the session, hosted by the liberal Navigator Research and viewed by NOTUS, also revealed a growing fury at other aspects of Trump’s second term, especially his aggressive immigration enforcement and sudden eagerness to intervene in foreign affairs.

Many of the participants said they’ve changed how they see Trump personally — no longer the crude-but-pragmatic leader of his first term but rather someone who is sinister and out of control.

“It just seems like the mask is off,” said one of the focus group participants, a woman in her 30s. “That’s who he is. And it’s kind of crazy.”

Another man, in his 40s, said he had felt some concern when he listened to Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail in 2024 but voted for him anyway because he thought the president would turn back into a maverick once in office, as he had during his first term.

“But it’s not the same person,” the man said. “It’s not the same president. So it’s been very dismaying.”

Despite the harsh assessment of Trump, the focus group participants did not give positive reviews of the Democratic Party, either, with at least one participant — who had earlier declared the economy was getting worse under Trump and said she was worried he was fueling racist animus against Latinos — saying she still wouldn’t have voted for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris if she could redo her ballot in 2024. Instead, she said, she just wouldn’t vote.

The depth behind the president’s falling approval with Hispanics — a fall evident in a battery of polls — suggests he, and by extension the broader Republican Party, won’t easily win this group of voters back, or that a rebounding economy in 2026 or beyond is a panacea for all of their political problems.

“During the first term, they saw him and said, ‘Oh, I wish he wouldn’t tweet so much,’’ said Margie Omero, a Democratic pollster who conducted the focus group for Navigator. “You heard all that. That part is not new.

“But now it’s escalated,” Omero added. “It’s not new but it’s gotten worse. People feel like it’s born out by the kind of policies he has embraced.”

NOTUS viewed the 75-minute focus group Tuesday under the condition that none of the participants be named.

A single focus group is not necessarily a representative sample of how voters feel about Trump, with Republicans contending that the group of voters remains very much up for grabs in the 2026 midterm election and beyond because of lingering concern many of them have for Democrats. But a series of polls suggest Trump’s standing with Hispanic voters has dropped precipitously since taking office, even among some who voted for him. An October survey from the Pew Research Center found that 70% of Latinos disapproved of the president, while 65% of them disapproved of his immigration policies specifically.

Further, the survey found that just 81% of Latinos who voted for Trump approved of his performance as president.

Polling data also suggests that Latinos have had a negative reaction to Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Navigator released a survey this week that found 68% of them thought ICE had been too aggressive, while 69% disapproved of the agency overall.

“To the extent that ICE is targeting people beyond those who have committed crimes, it’s going to create significant pushback from the Hispanics who voted for Donald Trump, as well as other Americans,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster.

Ayres emphasized that he thought Democrats weren’t in a great position with Latino voters, either. But he added that the danger for the GOP was that many Latino voters were never hardcore Trump enthusiasts but swing voters who backed him because of concerns about the economy and the Democratic Party’s position on social issues.

“They were swing voters,” Ayres said. “And by definition, they’re not hardcore anything.”

In the focus group, most of the seven participants raised their hands when asked if they knew someone who had been on the receiving end of an enforcement action from ICE. One man said he had personally been confronted by ICE agents recently while in his car.

Their reaction to ICE’s activities was almost uniformly negative, with many saying that although they supported removing criminals or drug cartel members, the enforcement actions were too often targeting innocent workers. And the way Trump talked about targeting immigrants, most of them said, was outright racist toward Latinos.

“You’re not just deporting people and ripping families apart, you are also creating an environment of hatred and feeding racism,” said one woman in her 30s.

“He’s created his own Gestapo,” said another man. “He’s going after Hispanics now, but when he gets done with Hispanics, you know who’s next.”

Asked to rate Trump’s second term so far, each of the participants assigned him a letter grade of “D” or “F.”

The recoil Hispanic voters might feel toward Trump’s immigration agenda underscores the political risks the president faces with a series of high-profile confrontations between ICE agents and protestors, one of which resulted in the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota last week.

The focus group also suggested that Trump faces political risk if he continues an aggressive policy of foreign intervention, seen most recently this month when he ordered the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Over and over again, participants chided Trump for what they said was his decision to expand America’s foray into foreign countries, saying they had hoped Trump would spend less money on war and more money at home.

“Mr. No More Foreign Wars just immediately keeps the funding going to Ukraine,” said one participant, a man in his 30s.

The participant, who praised some of Trump’s changes to vaccines and health food initiatives, said he had been a nominal supporter of the president during his first term. Now, however, he said Trump has turned into everything his critics said he was.

“[Trump derangement syndrome] actually has come to fruition. He actually is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” the man said. “It’s a complete contrast with who he was in 2016.”