‘No to dictators. No to Trump’: The controversial ad campaign comparing Fidel Castro with the Republican candidate

A poster comparing former U.S. President Donald Trump to the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Hialeah, Florida on June 19, 2024.

For advertising professionals, a good ad is one that does not go unnoticed. On the other hand, if anyone has aroused sensitivities and provoked controversy for decades among Latinos in Miami, that is Fidel Castro. That is why the Mad Dog Political Action Committee chose the deceased Cuban leader to inaugurate its campaign in Spanish for the November presidential elections. On June 17, Castro’s photo appeared next to an image of Donald Trump on a billboard in south Miami with the legend in Spanish: “No to dictators. No to Trump.”

A truck on the streets of Miami with the sign comparing Trump with Castro.

The Miami billboard has been followed by more signs in Spanish against the Republican candidate. Over the next four weeks, Trump’s photo will wave from a billboard on a highway in Phoenix, Pennsylvania, with the message “Trump will deport you.” It is expected that a million people will see it. Another one of the ads reads: “Trump will deport your parents.” The Republican nominee has promised during the campaign that if he is elected president, he will carry out the largest deportation of undocumented migrants ever seen in the history of the United States.

The people behind the controversial advertising campaign against Trump say that they are going to extend it to other states. In addition to increasing their presence in Florida, Mad Dog PAC plans to place more Spanish-language ads on strategically located billboards in Arizona and New Mexico.

The comparison between Trump and Castro raised blisters among Republican Cubans in the Sunshine State. Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar contacted the advertising company to complain about what she described as a “profoundly irresponsible and dishonest billboard featuring Fidel Castro, a known murderous dictator,” she wrote.

After being displayed for five days, on Saturday the billboard was removed and replaced by a sign that reads “Convicted Felon” next to the image of the Republican candidate. In May, Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts in the hush money case, in which it was proven that he falsified business records to hide the payment of bribes to a porn actress with whom he had a relationship. The founder of Mad Dog, Claude Taylor, a former Democratic campaign staffer, assures EL PAÍS that the fact that the controversial billboard was removed was not a result of criticism, but rather planned in advance. The Trump-Castro comparison continued to be seen throughout Miami on the sides of a truck over the weekend.

“I understand that many Cuban-Americans are upset by the comparison. But for me it is total hypocrisy to oppose Castro and his terrible dictatorship, to escape that tyranny, and come to this country and want a right-wing dictator instead of a left-wing dictator. To me all dictators are evil, whether they are from the left or the right,” says Taylor.

A sign with the words

A new advertisement has also been displayed on a truck through the streets of Miami with the same legend “No to dictators. No to Trump” along with the photos of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, instead of Fidel Castro.

Taylor claims the ads are aimed at independent voters. “I don’t expect our signs to convince the Cuban MAGA lunatics in Florida, who are part of the Trump cult. They were not the objective,” he emphasizes. Taylor says that since the ad was published, his PAC has received hundreds of donations, some of up to $2,000, something exceptional for a committee whose donors mostly make small contributions of $10, $20 or $50. “For us, typically a donation of $100 is a big donation. Donations from Miami have really increased in the last week,” he points out.

The PAC has placed more than 100 ads since January as part of its crusade against Trump. These are distributed throughout the key states that could decide who will be the next occupant of the White House. The anti-Trump billboards are distributed throughout the states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia. In the PAC’s seven years of existence, the Republican candidate has been the favorite target of its advertising claims, but they have also campaigned, among others, for reproductive rights.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition