Donald Trump, Julio Iglesias Battle Over Immigration

Julio Iglesias says he will no longer perform in casinos owned by Donald Trump, citing the presidential candidate’s controversial statements about immigration. Trump responded.

by Kory Grow

Donald Trump and Julio Iglesias engaged in a war of words in the press Wednesday after the singer said he’d no longer perform in casinos owned by the billionaire presidential candidate. The singer called Trump a “clown” after saying “sorry to clowns” in an interview with the Spanish-language La Vanguardia, according to The New York Times. Although Iglesias was born in Spain, he titled his most recent album Mexico, a country that’s been the target of many Trump rants since he announced his candidacy.

“I will never again play in his casinos,” the singer said, saying that Trump’s position on immigration wasn’t correct. “I don’t want to hurt the immigrants all over the world, and there are many casinos I can play that aren’t owned by Mr. Trump.”

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The billionaire responded in a short statement: “Good, I don’t like his voice or his performances anymore, anyhow!”

In the interview, Iglesias shrugged off the notion that he was bringing up Trump for publicity. “I’m maybe the biggest Latino artist in history,” he said. “If you think that I need that now, that’s wrong.”

Since comparing undocumented immigrants to “rapists” in a speech, Trump has sparked worldwide ire for his rhetoric. He has nevertheless maintained his stance to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “We can have a great and beautiful wall, we’ll have our border, and guess what? Nobody comes in unless they have their papers,” the billionaire recently said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. He also maintained that he was unapologetic for anything he has said.

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