FILE - In this July 11, 2015, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Trump criticized Sen. John McCain's military record at a conservative forum Saturday, saying the party's 2008 nominee and former prisoner of war was a "war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured." McCain spent 20 years in the Navy, a quarter of it in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp after his jet was shot down over Hanoi during a bombing mission Oct. 26, 1967. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Donald Trump has claimed, several times, that Hispanics love him.
Now, in Scotland – where he is attending the Women’s British Open at his Turnberry resort – the business mogul and GOP presidential candidate went even further, saying that Hispanic voters will help him nail down his party’s nomination.
"A poll came out two days ago where I am number one with the Hispanics," Trump told a group of reporters, according to various published reports. "I know you are surprised to hear that. But I am number one with the Hispanics. And I said that if I get the nomination I will win with the Hispanics."
Even before he finished his announcement in June that he was running for president, Trump immediately drew fire for remarks regarding Mexico.
In his speech, Trump vowed to build a wall between Mexico and the United States because, he said, Mexico was dumping its worst – including rapists and other criminals – on U.S. shores.
Many Latino leaders from across the country denounced his remarks, and several corporate entities cut their business ties with him.
Trump has refused to apologize for the comments, but said the media distorted his remarks and portrayed him as anti-Mexican and anti-Latino, which he says he is not.
He has said in recent weeks that he has employed “tens of thousands” of Latinos, and that a recent poll by a conservative organization showed that he has strong support among Hispanics in Nevada, a crucial state in the primaries and the general election.
In Scotland, Trump encountered tough questions from reporters regarding his comments about Mexico. Reporters asked him to respond to claims that he is a racist.
Trump said “Excuse me?” at one point, NBC reported.
The reporter asked: "Why have you come here, Mr. Trump?"
The mogul answered that he was in Scotland, according to NBC, "because I love Turnberry and we're doing a lot of work on Turnberry and we have the British Open, the Women's British Open, here. It's going to be a really exciting weekend."
Trump said he had raised the important issue of immigration.
“The people are very thankful I was able to bring that argument out and crystallize that argument and I think you know that, I think you see that, and I think that’s probably [why I’m] number one in the polls, or one of the reasons,” he said, according to the Guardian.
In a CNN interview on Wednesday, Trump said that as president, he would deport everyone who is here illegally. The “good ones,” Trump said, would be able to return to the United States through an “expedited process” and live and work here legally.
"Legal status," Trump said. "We got to move them out, we're going to move them back in if they're really good people.
"Politicians aren't going to find them because they have no clue. We will find them, we will get them out," Trump said. "It's feasible if you know how to manage. Politicians don't know how to manage."
Trump, who initially told reporters in Scotland he only would discuss golf, said that as president he would “unite the world,” strengthen the U.S. military and even have a positive relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said that Hillary Clinton had failed as Secretary of States and that President Obama had caused the United States to lose respect around the world.
“I think there’s been too much diplomacy. I think we’re so politically correct in our country that people are sick and tired of it and things aren’t getting done,” Trump said, according to The Guardian. “We’re diplomatic in our country and everybody hates us all over the world. We’re politically correct and the world hates the United States.”
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