Viral Mexican corrido praises Trump after assassination attempt. Here’s what the song says
A Mexican song positively representing former President Donald Trump following his attempted assassination has amassed millions of views from Spanish-speakers on social media.
The 2-minute, 35-second corrido, or Mexican ballad, posted earlier this week on TikTok describes details of the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, and lauds Trump’s bravery. The video has since garnered reposts from social media influencers with millions of followers and even reached politicians.
Its release comes as Trump continues to make inroads with Latino voters, according to multiple polls and surveys. Earlier this year, a poll by The New York Times and Siena College showed Trump edging out President Joe Biden among Hispanic voters.
Still, the song’s vast reach is surprising to experts who cited the genre’s history and primary consumers. While the song stops short of glorifying Trump, it speaks positively of the Republican candidate, said Juan Carlos Ramírez-Pimienta, a Spanish professor at San Diego State University’s Imperial Valley campus and a leading expert in the culture of corridos.
“This corrido is more positive than negative,” Ramírez-Pimienta said. “I don’t think it’s negative at all.”
The song’s lyrics, written by Pepe Sanchez, retell the events of the July 13 shooting.
“From far away, he aimed with a rifle to his head, and when he fire him, he hit him in the ear,” the song begins.
Ramírez-Pimienta said these lyrics are typical of corridos, which often react to “spectacular events” and is a genre of opportunity. He noted that some corridos were written and performed in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s shooting.
Ramírez-Pimienta also emphasized that the genre has no ideology and comes from the perspective of the writer.
“Corridos can be very forward-thinking and very conservative,” Ramírez-Pimienta said. “We have many instances of corridos (that) are really misogynist or racist, and then corridos (that) are very revolutionary.”
In this case, Ramírez-Pimienta said, the corrido’s lyrics showcase Trump in a “positive way.”
He referenced the portion of the song that says: “Trump is a brave man who has never known fear, because he looked calm and there are many witnesses to that, he didn’t back down despite of what happened.”
As of Thursday, the original TikTok video of the song garnered 3.3 million views.
But reposts of the song from Latino social media influencers have increased its reach. Top comments, in English and Spanish, mostly praised Trump and voiced support for his re-election.
Emilio Bedolla, who goes by El3milio1 on TikTok, posted a portion of the song that amassed another 1.1 million views.
“Why does this Trump corrido go hard,” Bedolla captioned in the video.
Ramírez-Pimienta called the mostly positive support of the Trump corrido “surprising.”
“Consumers of corridos are mostly the Mexican American community, and the Mexican community ... and it perceives itself as a community under siege, in a way — a disenfranchised community, that sees the corrido as a mechanism of empowerment,” Ramírez-Pimienta said.
For Trump’s Latino supporters, the song was yet another sign of the community’s backing.
“I knew it was only a matter of time before they wrote a corrido for President Donald Trump,” former Republican Congresswoman Mayra Flores Vallejo posted on X. “I love our Mexican-American culture.”
This is not the first time a corrido has been performed about Trump. In 2015, one song described him as “crazier than a goat.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Viral Mexican corrido praises Trump after assassination attempt. Here’s what the song says."
