MIAMI _ President-elect Donald Trump called Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez Saturday to express his "solidarity" with the Cuban-American community after Fidel Castro's death, a county spokesman said.
The call to the Cuban-born Gimenez, a Republican who supported Hillary Clinton, followed statements from Trump and President Barack Obama on Castro's death. Obama's statement contained no direct criticism of Castro, writing instead about the "countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation."
Trump took a far harsher tone with Castro in a statement more aligned with sentiment in Miami-Dade, the unofficial capital of Cuba's exile community. After a Twitter post stating bluntly "Fidel Castro is dead!," he issued a statement that said Castro's "legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights."
Cuban-Americans formed the strongest base of Trump's support among Hispanics, with polls showing him leading in that Miami-Dade constituency. His statement noted that support, along with the backing he won from the Miami-based veterans group of Bay of Pigs soldiers, which broke with tradition to make its first presidential endorsement.
"I join the many Cuban Americans who supported me so greatly in the presidential campaign, including the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association that endorsed me, with the hope of one day soon seeing a free Cuba," Trump wrote.
