Bay of Pigs vets come to Trump’s rescue on ‘award’ controversy, but is it truthful? | Opinion
In a presidential election where truth — or better said, the lack of it — is on the ballot, a small painting with the insignia of the Bay of Pigs veterans association, Brigade 2506, has become a point of national debate.
Is the golden-framed shield of the Cuban flag draped over a white cross “the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award,” as President Donald Trump claims, given to him in Miami in 2016 by the group of veterans who tried to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government in 1961?
Or, was this simply a gift to mark the group’s endorsement of Trump, a token of appreciation for his promise to undo President Barack Obama’s engagement policy and take a hard line against Castro if he won the election?
“Remember, Miami Cubans gave me the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award for all I have done for our great Cuban Population!” Trump boasted in a tweet Sunday in an attack on Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
And he claimed on the same day at a Latinos for Trump round table in Las Vegas: “As you know, a little while ago I received the Bay of Pigs Award from the Cuban Americans in Miami. That’s a big honor and they don’t give it out easily.”
Fact checkers for CNN and NBC said there’s no evidence the award ever existed.
It was an endorsement, Daniel Dale of CNN concluded.
Democrats in Florida and beyond echoed the revelation, many pointing to a column I wrote lamenting the Bay of Pigs endorsement of Trump in 2016. “In supporting Trump, proud Bay of Pigs vets drag themselves into an unworthy battle,” I wrote.
I stand by the column in 2020, too. But my assessment of their endorsement isn’t proof of whether there was an award given, or not.
A day later, the Bay of Pigs veterans came to Trump’s rescue — and provided photos of Trump posing with the painting of their shield. They called it an award in recognition of his anti-Castro views, which the veterans have followed since he wrote an op-ed in the Miami Herald in 1999, and contacted him.
The truth, or lack of it, isn’t as cut and dried as people are casting the issue.
“This is so ridiculous,” Felix Rodríguez, former president of the association, told me in an interview. “Our board of directors decided to give Donald Trump our shield as an honor.”
But is it an award?
Trump’s name isn’t engraved anywhere, I pressed, using the Spanish “premio” so there would be no confusion.
“Es un award,” he answered in Spanglish and pointed to a photo of the back of the picture, which marks the event and names veterans.
Are the veterans being truthful — or providing cover for a president they support?
“We considered it an award,” Rodríguez said.
Florida GOP operatives, who were at the 2016 event, support the veterans’ assertion.
“I find amusing the semantics of this as an issue,” said lawyer Marili Cancio, whose father was in the Bay of Pigs invasion. She was there with him, sat in the front row. “The endorsement was memorialized by the plaque or shield, whatever you want to call it.”
Said Executive Director of the Republican Party of Florida Helen Aguirre Ferré, who was at the event representing the Republican National Committee: “It isn’t a wealthy organization. If they call it an award, then it is an award. Who are we to call it a token of appreciation? It’s the honor of the recognition more than the plaque or the like that is given.”
Why does something gifted to Trump in Miami by a small group of Cuban Americans matter that much?
Because Trump is touting it on the campaign trail as “the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award” — yet hardly anyone in Miami had heard of it until now. The Miami Herald’s extensive coverage of the unprecedented Bay of Pigs vets endorsement doesn’t mention it.
Because the president is casting the veterans’ endorsement as that of the entire Cuban-American community when that voting bloc is as divided as the nation, both in the 2020 election and four years ago. In 2016, 54% voted for Trump, according to exit polls.
And most importantly, the issue is contested because the president is an unrepentant, chronic liar, so why wouldn’t he be lying about this, too?
But there’s more at work than meets the eye, including a culture disconnect.
American journalists are judging from afar what’s true about a community they don’t know or cover.
Yes, Trump misrepresented his award “for all I have done for our great Cuban Population!”
When he got the plaque in 2016, he hadn’t done much.
In fact, he had sent delegations to Cuba to explore building a Trump Tower in Havana and a golf course in Varadero.
He’s no savior from socialism but a wannabe American dictator.
But that’s not something the Brigade wants to talk about.
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 6:40 PM.
