President Donald Trump still supports the reelection Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), despite the Florida Republican publicly criticizing his administration’s immigration policies.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that he “disagreed” with Salazar’s criticsm, contending he has a “very strong” record regarding securing the border and reducing illegal immigration and that is what “at least partially” won him the 2024 president election.
“She obviously doesn’t have a very strong feeling for the border, but I do,” he said in the Oval Office. “She’s a nice person. I got her elected. Without me, she wouldn’t have gotten elected.”
Trump has endorsed Salazar, a former news anchor whose 27th Congressional District is majority-minority with 73% of the population being Hispanic, for reelection this November. Salazar was first elected in 2020, defeating Rep. Donna Shalala (D-FL).
“She ran against a person a number of years ago who was not even thought possible to lose,” Trump said on Friday. “Then when I endorsed Maria, she ended up winning in the biggest surprise in all of Congress for that, for that session, for that term, and Maria won only because of me.”
The president added, “So she got a little bit soft on the border.”
Salazar, whose race is now considered “likely Republican” by the Cook Political Report, on Thursday released a campaign ad, arguing that Trump’s “immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.”
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“In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record,” the congresswoman says during the 30-second spot before directly addressing the president. “Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy.
“The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today,” she continued. “You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism. I’m not talking about giving them amnesty. I’m talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land.”