Billboard Comparing Trump to Fidel Castro Removed After Politician Complained
It's a classic case of jawboning.
A billboard criticizing former President Donald Trump by comparing him to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has been taken down, apparently because a congresswoman asked the advertiser to remove it.
While the founder of the political group behind the billboard says a different message critical of Trump will be coming soon, the fact that a politician openly intervened to quash controversial political speech is cause for concern.
The billboard showed pictures of Trump and Castro with the Spanish message, "No a los dictadores no a Trump," which translates to "No to dictators no to Trump." The message quickly sparked controversy in heavily Cuban-American Miami, drawing protests from disgruntled residents.
"It's disrespectful to Cuba, to Cubans, to Trump, especially to this country, too," one Miami woman told NBC Miami "There's no comparison."
Soon after, Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar (R), who represents a district in Miami-Dade County, intervened.
"This morning, I spoke with Lamar Advertising to express my serious concerns about the profoundly irresponsible and dishonest billboard featuring Fidel Castro, a known murderous dictator," Salazar wrote in a Friday statement. "This afternoon, I was informed by the Vice President and General Manager for the South Florida region at Lamar that they will be removing the billboard shortly. The truth requires them to take this action."
However, the political action committee behind the ad says it won't be stopped, even if their billboard is taken down. According to the Miami Herald, the billboard will now be displayed from a box truck driven around Miami, and the old billboard will be replaced with a new message highlighting Trump's felony conviction.
"The Castro billboard is coming down, and the convicted-felon billboard is going up," Claude Taylor, the founder of Mad Dog PAC told the Miami Herald. "And I've got a new billboard truck with the same message hitting Miami. It'll be on the streets tomorrow."
Even if Taylor's message will still find its way around Miami, Salazar's intervention is still deeply disturbing. It's a classic example of "jawboning"—a term describing what happens when government officials pressure private institutions to censor disfavored speech.
When politicians see a billboard they don't like, they shouldn't try to use their influence to quash disfavored speech. But Salazar hasn't seemed to have received the message.