BARCELONA, SPAIN - JULY 04: Julio Iglesias performs "Julio Iglesias In Concert At Gran Teatre del Liceu" on July 4, 2012. (Photo by Miquel Benitez/Getty Images) (2012 Getty Images)
For years, Julio Iglesias has enjoyed singing at the casinos owned by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. But not anymore.
In a scathing interview Wednesday with Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, the 72-year-old singer called the business mogul “a clown” over his derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants.
“I’ve sung at his casinos several times, but I won’t be doing it again,” Iglesias said. “He seems like an a******. He thinks he can fix the world forgetting what immigrants have done for his country. He is a clown – and sorry to the clowns.”
He later reiterated his stance in a subsequent interview with the New York Times.
“I’ve met Trump three or four times because I’ve played at his places. I think his brain and his heart are not connected right now. It’s not correct, his position,” Iglesias told the newspaper. “I will never again play in his casinos. 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.”
The real estate mogul responded in a short statement from his spokesperson: “Good, I don’t like his voice or his performances anymore, anyhow.”
Speaking to the Times, Iglesias shrugged off the notion that he was speaking out against Trump to give his tour more publicity.
“When I started this album two years ago, I was not thinking I would have something to do with Mr. Trump,” said Iglesias, who is promoting his new album “Mexico” in the country. “I’m 72 years old and I’m maybe the biggest Latino artist in history. If you think that I need that now, that’s wrong. At my age it’s too late to embrace situations just to gain something.”
He added that he believes Trump is using nationalism during his campaign because “he likes the light in his eyes and he’s found a way to have a lot of light now.”
“(However) Donald Trump should not exercise his strength in politics to put down the people who built the country,” Iglesias continued.
Iglesias is the most recent celebrity to criticize Trump for his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants earlier this year. Singer Ricky Martin wrote a scathing op-ed that ran on Univision in which he lashed out at Trump for repeatedly “harassing” Latinos.
Actress America Ferrera wrote an open letter in July thanking Trump for bringing Latinos together while Eva Longoria slammed him and invoked Adolf Hitler while discussing his remarks.
Music producer Emilio Estefan recently released a new single "We're All Mexican."
“We have so many problems, and they are talking about Mexicans being rapists and killing people. That wasn’t right,” Estefan told Fox News Latino last month. “We love this country. We don’t take things for granted.”
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