If Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida was looking to generate some attention for herself ahead of a difficult re-election campaign, the Miami-area Republican succeeded spectacularly. In politics, however, sometimes seizing the spotlight comes with unintended consequences.
Two weeks ago, the three-term GOP congresswoman released a 30-second ad, packaged as a direct-to-camera message to Donald Trump, featuring Salazar saying, “Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. … The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
The commercial helped spark an immediate public conversation about the growing tensions between Latino voters and the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections and simultaneously pushed Salazar’s visibility to new heights, including an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
For the congresswoman, that was the good news.
The bad news was that her higher profile also made her a political target. Elements of her own party’s base turned on Salazar with a vengeance — some MAGA activists talked about wanting to “deport” the Latina congresswoman despite the fact that she’s a Florida-born citizen — while her Democratic detractors emphasized the inconvenient fact that she’s now against the White House’s mass deportation agenda after having spent years backing Trump, his anti-immigration crusade and massive funding increases for agencies like Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
To make matters worse, when Salazar sat down with Jim DeFede, a prominent journalist at the CBS affiliate in Miami, the congresswoman seemed largely unfamiliar with key elements of her own congressional record during an on-air interview.
But perhaps most notable of all was the reaction from the president whose agenda she criticized.
The day after Salazar’s ad reached the public, the president responded with a rebuke that, by Trump standards, was quite mild.
“She obviously doesn’t have a very strong feeling for the border, but I do. And, I understand what she’s saying, but I … won because of my border,” he said at a White House event. Trump added that he considers Salazar a “nice person” who “got a little bit softer” on border policy.
“I understand that,” he concluded, “but I just don’t happen to be there.”
That was on Sept. 18. Two days later, on Sept. 20, Salazar said she’d spoken to the president, and he was “very receptive” to her concerns, adding that he was “a gentleman” and “very courteous.”
A week later, on Sept. 27, Trump seemed a lot less “receptive” toward the congresswoman. Politico reported:
President Donald Trump on Saturday escalated his criticism of Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), amplifying a series of social media posts attacking the Florida Republican and, in multiple instances, calling for her replacement ahead of her election in just over a month.
Trump reposted more than a dozen messages criticizing Salazar on Truth Social, the president’s social media platform, including one user’s post that read: “So we need a NEW Republican to Replace Salazar.”
Obviously, it’s far too late for Republicans to replace Salazar on the ballot, and there’s no reason whatsoever to think the GOP incumbent would voluntarily step down. Nevertheless, it’s clear that a week after the president mildly chided the congresswoman, Trump decided to ramp up his offensive against Salazar in a rather ferocious way.
Democrats see her district as a highly competitive pick-up opportunity in the midterm elections, and having the president condemn her publicly probably won’t help Salazar’s re-election efforts.
This updates our related earlier coverage.
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