Florida: Donald Trump set aside his debate with Hillary Clinton Tuesday to court Hispanic voters in the key battleground state of Florida, shopping for pastries and visiting Miami`s Little Havana neighborhood.
"You know, when I started off with the Hispanic community, I knew that I had great relationships but it wasn`t reading that way in the newspapers," the Manhattan billionaire told a small, well-heeled audience of mostly Cuban Americans in a college auditorium in Miami.
"We`re leading Florida right now," he claimed to applause, despite polls putting him neck and neck with his Democratic opponent. "And we`re doing that because of the Hispanic community to a large extent."
But if the polls in Florida are too close to call, Trump still faces an enormous task if he wants to count on Hispanics electing him into the Oval Office on November 8.
In Miami, his motorcade swept past a handful of protesters, who held a "No Trump, No KKK, No racist USA" sign as they shouted in heavy rain.
Clinton holds a commanding lead over Trump among Hispanic voters in five key battleground states, at 53 to 34 percent in Florida, according to a recent Florida Atlantic University poll.
From the start of his once improbable bid for the presidency in June 2015, Trump slammed Mexicans as drug dealers, rapists and criminals.
He is campaigning to build a wall along the southern US border, insisting that Mexico will pay for what he says will stem the tide of illegal immigrants and drugs.
He has also threatened to deport millions of illegal immigrants, many of them from a Hispanic background.On Tuesday, Trump offered generalized words about the crisis in Venezuela, promised a better deal on relations with Cuba and urged the overwhelmingly Cuban American audience to get out and vote.
"I see the problems on the news every night, I see what`s going on and you people must be devastated," the candidate said.
Referencing the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba, he said friends were "so unhappy. Not at a deal being made, they want the right deal," he said. "We will make the deal, believe me."
He also offered his condolences over the tragic death of Miami Marlins ace pitcher Jose Fernandez, 24, a Cuban refugee turned US citizen who died Sunday in a boating accident.
This was low-key Trump: no music, no grand introduction, no fanfare, just him sitting on stage in an arm chair -- a far cry from his preferred style of large campaign rally attracting thousands.
But still the small, enthusiastic group chanted "Trump, Trump, Trump," "USA, USA, USA," and applauded loudly.
He was preaching to the converted. The gathering appeared to be invitation only, names checked off against a list. Those who spoke to AFP firmly supported his tough stance against illegal immigrants.
It is a crowd fed up with the political establishment, several of whom said there was "no way" they would ever be voting for Clinton.It was also a crowd embodying the American dream of hundreds of thousands of Cubans who fled after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, coming to the United States to find an education, jobs and prosperity.
None of the five speakers from the floor asked questions. Instead, they thanked him effusively for his "sacrifices" in running for office, calling him "Mr Soon To Be President," or even just "Mr President."
One woman, originally from Venezuela, addressed Trump in Spanish through a translator as he sat with chin resting on his hand.
"I don`t know how to thank you for just jumping into this cesspool. Simply because you don`t want this country to turn out to be another Cuba, another Venezuela," said businessman Max Alvarez.
Trump later stopped off at Versailles Bakery, for what a staffer said was coffee, empanadas, croquettes and a pastry to chants of "Arriba Trump" as a few people jumped on chairs to catch a glimpse.
Later Tuesday, he addresses a rally in an airport hangar in Melbourne, Florida. Also on his schedule -- two Florida fundraisers -- as he tries to play catchup with Clinton`s heaving war chest.
"He would have to just completely reverse a lot of his policies for me to switch from him," David Lopez, a 20-year-old student, told AFP.
"But to go to Clinton? No way. That wouldn`t happen."
