Trump turns to friendly Spanish-language network Americano Media the day before his criminal arraignment
Former President Donald Trump: “The Hispanics understand it better than anyone else because they've seen it before.”
Written by G. Capuano
Published
Update (6/14/23): On June 13, Americano Media’s chief communications officer Michael Caputo – a former Trump official who in 2020 was caught praising white supremacists – reportedly called Sky News producer Sophie Alexander a “stupid bitch” during a Trump campaign event immediately following the former president’s criminal arraignment.
As part of a media blitz ahead of his criminal arraignment in a federal court in Miami, Florida, former President Donald Trump on June 12 did a live call-in interview on Americano Media, the conservative media network looking to become the Fox News of Spanish-speaking America.
Founded by former Trump campaign/administration officials Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo and Michael Caputo, Americano Media has entrenched connections with the Trump camp and others in the Republican Party. In April 2022, as The Washington Post put it, Trump “offered himself” for an interview to help kickstart Americano Media’s original Sirius XM operation. Then, in October, following investments in the network’s streaming capabilities, Trump sat for a livestreamed interview with Americano Media’s Lucia Navarro, earning the network thousands of followers on social media and firmly establishing the network in the right-wing media space.
In the months that followed, Americano Media aired over a dozen interviews with Republican elected officials, including several with Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). Americano Media executives have also made several trips to Capitol Hill, meeting Republican leaders including Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA).
On Monday, hours after arriving at his hotel in Miami, Trump called in to Americano Media’s Miami-based studio, where host Carines Moncada -- who recently joined Americano Media from the South Florida conservative radio station Actualidad-Radio -- led the English-language interview. She helped prime the former president with claims that his criminal indictment, which he had previously described as a cover up, is “the type of thing that sadly happens in Latin America,” adding, “Our Americano Audience is very aware of it.”
CARINES MONCADA (HOST): What we're seeing here is the type of thing, Mr. President, that sadly happens in Latin America, and our Americano audience, it’s very aware of it.
...
Are we regressing as a democracy? How do you think Hispanics feel about this?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, there is a regression, but there's been an incredible lovefest between the Hispanic community and myself.
...
And yeah, they're changing it. They're trying to change the rules right now, and what they're using is they're using the Justice Department, the FBI, to try and hurt, at least hurt in the sense of a public relations sense, to put it sort of in a nice term, or do worse than that. And they're trying to do that to win elections. And you're right, in South America, in Latin America, you take a look. That's exactly it.
Moncada also allowed Trump to spread false claims that his criminal indictment was carried out “to distract attention from where the real corruption is,” alluding to a rehashed anti-Biden smear campaign that accuses President Joe Biden of having received vast sums of money from Ukraine when his son Hunter was on the board of the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma. On June 13, Fox News cited the interview during its coverage of the arraignment.
CARINES MONCADA (HOST): Let's talk about timing, President, Mr. Trump. We learned about the indictment the same week, perhaps the same day, that the members of the oversight committee in the House were able to see a document from a very credible source, we hear, that Joe Biden was the object of a bribe there, that he accepted $5 million to change a policy that would benefit Burisma, an energy company in Ukraine. What's your reaction to that? Do you think this indictment is a way to distract the attention from where the real corruption is?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I do. I think it was that. And they say there's much more to follow.
…
And I think it's backfired, frankly, because you see the love, and you see the poll numbers going up, my poll numbers going way, way up, and I think people understand that. People in this country understand it, and the Hispanics understand it, I think, better than anybody else because they've seen it before.”