Cyndi Lundeberg
During Donald Trump’s stop in the Las Vegas Valley Wednesday, he made time to sit down with Hispanic business owners.
Now, thousands of people are calling for a boycott of the businesses whose owners met with the mogul and Republican presidential candidate.
The owner of the restaurant that hosted Trump said she’s been receiving death threats and harassing phone calls. The man who called for the boycott, meanwhile, said that wasn’t his intention.
“Mr. Trump sat here and I had the privilege of sitting next to him. I was very nervous,” said Irma Aguirre, the owner of the business that hosted Trump. “I have always been a Trump supporter from the very beginning.”
Aguirre, along with 29 other Hispanic business owners, spent about 45 minutes with Trump. Aguirre said the group discussed ways for Hispanic businesses to grow.
“I think the important thing is he cares. For him to come out into the barrio to see what our concerns are — small business owners — that’s a big deal to us,” Aguirre said.
While the meeting was going on inside, protests took place outside.
Hillary Clinton supporter Jose Macias turned to Facebook to call for the boycott. The post has been shared thousands of times.
“I feel angry and sad. I feel seeing a presidential candidate – it wasn’t normal seeing the hate he was creating since day one,” Macias said.
Macias takes issue with Trump’s stance on immigration and comments in which he classified immigrants as rapists and criminals.
Aguirre has a different take.“I didn’t hear what everyone heard. I heard him talk about protecting our borders, and I didn’t take offense to it,” she said.
Still, Macias said he didn’t intend for the hateful messages to come Aguirre’s way.“Take a look at the big picture, and if you’re going to be critical, be critical of Hillary Clinton, you know, the fact we can’t trust her,” Aguirre said.
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