The Bombast Of Monsieur Trumpanzeè Turns A Large Republican-Leaning Group Against The GOP-- Pinoy Power!

There are over 3 and a half million Flipino-Americans (Pinoy) living in the country, some of whom are descended from immigrants who started coming in significant numbers in the 1700s. Filipinos are the second largest Asian-American group, after Chinese-Americans. Though a plurality of Filipinos consider themselves independents (45%)-- slightly more identify and Republicans than Democrats-- Filipinos are generally socially-conservative and have tended to vote Republican. They voted for Bush in landslide numbers and it wasn't until Obama's 2008 race that that started turning around. The states with the biggest number of Filipino-Americans are California (about a million and a half), Hawaii, Illinois, Texas, Washington, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Florida and Virginia.

Stupidly and quite gratuitously, Señor Trumpanzee alienated the entire group last week by labeling the Philippines a terrorist nation and announcing he would cut back on Filipino immigration. I heard about it from a very conservative elderly woman who live-in the neighborhood and has never voted for a Democrat in her life-- and never thought she would. But now she says she's going to vote for Hillary and says she threw away her "Make America Great Again" baseball cap. "He's an ignorant and hateful man," she told me last week. "A bad man with no soul. I hope God opens his heart."

Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle carried a story about why Flipinos are so angry with Trump and how he was able to galvanize the whole community against the GOP. "When GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump," wrote John Wildermuth, "suggested that immigration from the Philippines should be stopped because it’s a terrorist nation, he likely ended any chance he may have had to compete for the Daly City vote." But the reverberations went well beyond the sizable Filipino community in Daly City.

Trump “is doing what he usually does, which is speaking without thinking,” said Mike Guingona, a councilman in Daly City, where a third or more of the 104,000 residents are Filipino Americans or of Filipino descent. “For someone to make such a broad and sweeping statement without any evidence is unacceptable.”

Speaking last week at a rally in Portland, Maine, Trump said allowing even legal immigration and tourism from countries plagued by terrorism is “pure, raw stupidity.”

Since last year, Trump has called for Muslims to be barred from entering the United States, and said last month that his position has “gotten bigger ... I’m talking about territories now.”

While he declined to say what nations would be included in a potential ban, he listed the Philippines as an example of where a resident legally moved to the United States and was arrested and sentenced last year to 25 years in prison for terrorist activities. However, there’s no evidence Filipino terrorism has permeated the U.S.-- it’s a homegrown movement that generally stays there.

“We’re letting people come in from terrorist nations that shouldn’t be allowed because you can’t vet them,” Trump said. “You have no idea who they are. This could be the biggest Trojan horse of all time.”

But while it’s one thing to talk about banning immigration and tourist visits from countries like Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Somalia and Yemen, which Trump also did in his speech, putting the Philippines in that group is something entirely different, especially for the Bay Area.

A 2013 study by the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice found that Filipinos are the largest Asian ethnic group in the state, with 1.5 million residents, just ahead of the Chinese. More than half of those residents were born in the Philippines. In 2010, the Bay Area alone had nearly 500,000 Filipino or Filipino American residents.

For Democratic Alameda Assemblyman Rob Bonta, the state’s lone Filipino American legislator, Trump’s statement is nothing more than “divisive and hateful rhetoric.”

Trump’s proposal “is a direct attack on the Filipino community,” said Bonta, a former Alameda city councilman who was brought to California as an infant. “It’s a really important issue for the Filipino American community to focus on.”

In many ways, the concerns of the Philippines resemble those of Mexico, a country Trump has slammed for allowing millions of its residents to enter the U.S. illegally. Immigrants from both countries maintain close ties with relatives in their home countries, regularly traveling back for visits and celebrations. Both countries also depend heavily on remittances, money U.S. immigrants send to relatives in their native countries.

“I know people who go back and forth to the Philippines a couple of times a year or more,” Bonta said. Restrictions on travel in either direction would be devastating for families, he added.

Limitations like those Trump proposes would be disastrous for the Filipino community in Daly City and elsewhere, said Guingona, who is running for San Mateo County supervisor.

“It would be cutting what keeps us together,” he said. “We’re not just talking about immigration, but about people coming here to visit friends and relatives.”

...Reaction to Trump’s call for tough immigration restrictions in California and other areas with a large Filipino population has been harsh.

“Donald Trump has expanded his bigoted attacks to include Asian-Pacific Americans,” said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), who was born in Taiwan. “It is more than just offensive. It is dangerous.”

“Donald Trump’s latest rant suggesting we ban immigration from countries like the Philippines that are helping us fight terrorism is another example of his reckless rhetoric that’s based on fear and division,” said Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, where people of Filipino descent make up about a quarter of the population.

There was even more outrage in the Philippines itself, where one Filipino legislator has filed a bill in the country’s House of Representatives seeking to bar Trump from entering the country.

“Maybe (Trump) is speaking in broad strokes and he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about,” Ernesto Abella, a spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte, said in an interview with a state-run radio station.

Philippines Community Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in an Aug. 5 statement that it was unfortunate Trump mentioned the Philippines in his anti-immigration speech.

Trump “has even professed his love for the Philippines during the (2012) launch of his 57-story luxury apartment” building, Trump Tower, in Manila, Andanar said. “He did say, ‘I’ve always loved the Philippines. I think it is just a special place.’” The building in Manila licensed Trump’s name-- he was not the developer.

Maybe they'll have to change the name, the way they're doing in Baku, where Trump is detested by the Azerbaijanis after his outspoken bigotry against Muslims offended the entire country. My friend at the RNC, more aware than Trump of the Republican-friendly nature of Filipinos, told me this goes beyond just Filipinos. Do you know how many people only know Filipinos because it's who their nurses or their parents' nurses or relatives' or friends' nurses were. People remember them as the day-t0-day care-givers and lifesavers, sometimes more than doctors. The nurses are hands on. Trump should keep his yap shut about ethnic groups. The fucker doesn't ever learn."