Latino support for President Donald Trump and his policies is cratering, which is no surprise given that he has turned the entire federal government into a brutal nativist deportation regime aimed largely at Hispanic and Latino people. But Republicans need those votes, so they’re doing what the right wing always does: launching a dark money campaign.

What? You thought the solution would be for the administration to change the policies that are designed to terrorize Latino people specifically? Come on.

In advance of the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, the cool geniuses at Americans for Prosperity, a Koch Brothers creation, are working with LIBRE, another Koch Brothers creation, to engage Latino voters about the “founding policies” of America.

A quick glance at the LIBRE website shows just how generic and astroturf-y this group is. They want “worker freedom”—aka no unions. They want “school choice”—aka undermining public schools. They love Trump’s tax bill.

Sure, this is vaguely linked to the interests of Latino voters. But honestly, you could just Ctrl-F every mention of “Latino” and replace it with any other ethnic group. It would be the same thing: a hollow exhortation that real freedom is a complete lack of government programs or any semblance of a safety net.This feeble, generic nonsense is the basis for a seven-figure campaign, One Small Step, that will include paid media, civics classes, and community events.

Let’s all take a quick moment to imagine what, exactly, a civics class targeted at Latino voters would look like in this day and age. Will they tell them how it is super great that Trump is trying to erase birthright citizenship? What does worker freedom mean when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are arresting and deporting day laborers looking for work?

Or maybe they can explain how it is cool and good and totally reflective of America’s founding policies to detain migrants while they are on church grounds?

Oh wait! Perhaps they will share the good news about how the administration raced to the Supreme Court to beg to be allowed to racially profile Latinos? And how the court’s conservatives happily obliged, saying it was fine to detain people if they were brown, speaking Spanish, and working at certain low-wage jobs like car washes. Probable cause is for suckers, right?

Surely Latino voters will thrill to hear about how ICE is ticketing and fining legal residents if they fail to carry their papers at all times. Nothing says freedom like “papers, please.” Or perhaps the Koch folks can share the heartwarming stories of legal Latino residents being detained by ICE just for being brown.

Maybe LIBRE will reprint Trump’s very touching announcement about Hispanic Heritage Month. Sure, he didn’t get around to making a statement until a week had elapsed, at which point he produced a nothingburger that was mostly about how great he, Donald Trump, is.“Every day, my Administration is working tirelessly to bring opportunity, prosperity, and success to citizens of every background,” he crowed. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month, indeed.

Right-wingers are so comprehensively steeped in racism and anti-Latino bias that they had an absolute meltdown over the selection of Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime performer. Some of the dimmest, most vicious commentators, like Tomi Lahren, had to be reminded that, as a Puerto Rican citizen, Bad Bunny is actually an American.

Nevertheless, they’re furious that he will be singing in Spanish.

The Trump administration is so transparently racist that merely the selection of a Latino performer led to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem screaming about how ICE will be “all over” the Super Bowl. Her paramour, Corey Lewandowski, went even further, saying, “We will find you, we will apprehend you, we will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you.”

So weird that Latinos aren’t coming out in droves to support this, right?Trump was pretty psyched to increase his share of the Latino vote in 2024, but these days his numbers among that group are suffering, so it makes sense that the right wing is resorting to dark-money-fueled astroturf efforts to try to shore up his support.

Good luck, babe. It’s going to be pretty tough to pull this off when the news is an unending stream of federal agents committing violence against Latinos across the country. No amount of the Koch brothers’ money can paper over that.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos