Feel like taking a whack at Donald Trump?
If you do, Manuel Alvarez has something for you.
A Donald Trump piñata.
Alvarez, owner of Funland Express Party Rentals on West Irvington Road east of Interstate 19, has a 4-foot Trump piñata, replete with red tie, blue suit and a pompous pompadour. But it comes empty, like the real Trump, and candy to fill the void is extra.
“We have sold some,” said Alvarez.
Trump piñatas began popping up, not coincidentally, soon after his June 16 presidential candidacy announcement for the Republican Party.
In case you missed it, here’s part of what he said:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” he said at the tower bearing his name in New York City.
Whack!
That was the sound of the many potential voters who took their swings at the man who wants to lead our diverse country.
But not Alvarez.
“I do not care about what he said,” Alvarez said, but he added that Trump’s slap against Mexican immigrants was disrespectful.
“What I care about is my business,” said Alvarez, a 42-year-old immigrant from Agua Prieta, Mexico, across the border from Douglas. Alvarez, who has been in Tucson for nearly 30 years, has owned his business for three years, has a son at Tucson Magnet High School and pays his taxes.
Alvarez said he doesn’t want to pass judgment on Trump. However, Alvarez is more than happy to sell his $45 Trump piñatas to people who do want to pass judgment on the leading GOP candidate, who has been sucking oxygen out of his rivals.
Mexican-Americans, and by extension Latinos, are not the only ones who are taking their turns at Trump, the candidate.
At Thursday night’s raucous Republican candidates’ debate — a record- breaking program for the Fox News Channel — Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly whacked Trump when she suggested he was not presidential timber because of his sexist remarks about women being “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.”
Trump quipped, to applause from the audience, that he was referring only to television personality Rosie O’Donnell, but Kelly took another swing when she said, “Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees.”
Those thud sounds you hear are women and men across the fruited plain taking their turns at the Trump piñata.
Trump went into spin mode that he doesn’t have time to be politically correct and that is why the U.S. is in trouble and why this country is losing to China and — ta-da! — Mexico. You know he had to get in his dig at Mexico.
The non-contrite Trump, twisting like a piñata in the political wind, later complained to anyone who cared that Kelly was unfair to him.
At the opening bell, Kelly’s co-moderator, Bret Baier, asked the 10 candidates, “Who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican Party and pledge to not run an independent campaign?”
The human piñata raised his hand and the Republican faithful may start raising their hands to take their turns at the Trump piñata.
The billionaire real estate magnate, as an independent candidate with deep pockets who is attracting a populist, conservative following, could derail the candidacy of the eventual Republican nominee (say, Jeb Bush?).
As long as Trump remains a visible candidate, the line of people waiting to take their turns at the piñata will grow.
But for Alvarez, he’s not looking to sell many Trump piñatas. Among the large collection in his candy and raspado store, the Trump piñata is not his top seller.
Minnie and Mickey Mouse top Trump.
