New Donald Trump adviser pastor Tony Suarez deleted anti-Trump Facebook posts and previously attacked the presumptive Republican nominee as “a promoter of hate, division and insult.”
Suarez is the executive vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), a Republican activist, and a television host and commentator. He is a member of Trump’s newly convened “Evangelical Executive Advisory Board,” which will “provide advisory support to Mr. Trump on those issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith in America.” A press release states that those participating on the “board were not asked to endorse Mr. Trump as a prerequisite for participating on the board.”
The board also includes Fox News contributor Robert Jeffress, who has attacked LGBT people for purportedly leading “miserable” and “filthy” lives, and called Catholicism a “cult-like, pagan religion,” Islam an “evil, evil religion,” Mormonism a “cult” from the “pit of hell,” and Judaism and Hinduism religions that lead people to “an eternity of separation from God in Hell.”
Suarez is advising Trump despite lambasting the “embarrassing” Republican as “a promoter of hate, division and insult” who alienates Hispanics and has no chance of winning the general election.
Media Matters previously documented how political commentator Helen Aguirre Ferré, the Republican National Committee’s new director of Hispanic communications, deleted numerous tweets trashing Trump and previously criticized him during Hispanic media appearances.
In a now-deleted Facebook post from November 13, 2015, as the Washington Examiner noted, Suarez wrote that it’s “embarrassing” to see “preachers support Trump.”
In August, Suarez wrote that “Trump is putting on a clinic on how to NOT win the Latino vote or the White House.”
Time quoted Suarez in October declaring of Trump: “I don’t believe he would have the support of anyone in this room and I don’t think he has a chance of winning the general election.”
NBC News quoted Suarez stating of Trump: “Mr. Trump has become a promoter of hate, division and insult and if Mr. Trump were to be the Republican nominee - I don't think he has a chance at winning the general election.” Suarez also reportedly called for Trump’s campaign “to be canceled like his last reality TV program.”
Suarez was publicly criticizing Trump and his “alienating” rhetoric earlier this month. During an interview on the June 5 edition of MSNBC’s Weekends with Alex Witt, Suarez related that his boss “the Reverend Sam Rodriguez, the president of the NHCLC, recently said everyone’s waiting for Donald Trump to build a wall. He’s already actually built walls. He’s built walls with rhetoric that is polarizing and alienating the Latino electorate from his campaign.” He added at the time he wasn’t sure if he would vote for Clinton instead of Trump.
The Huffington Post reported that “Suarez said he remained uncommitted to Trump, even after meeting with the candidate. But he said he saw the creation of the board as a positive step, if only for providing him and others a chance to urge Trump to think and talk differently about certain issues”:
The author of that passage, the Rev. Tony Suarez, told HuffPost he probably did it out of desperation (it’s now deleted). Suarez, an executive vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, supported Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for president.
Like others who gathered in New York on Wednesday, Suarez said he remained uncommitted to Trump, even after meeting with the candidate. But he said he saw the creation of the board as a positive step, if only for providing him and others a chance to urge Trump to think and talk differently about certain issues.
“I was very frustrated with Mr. Trump in the fall,” Suarez said. “But in the spirit of reconciliation and believing that everyone deserves a second chance, I’m giving Mr. Trump that opportunity. Okay, you’re talking about building bridges, you say you love Latinos, you want us to love you — then okay, let’s come to the table.”