{"id":7382,"date":"2026-08-21T10:22:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T10:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7382"},"modified":"2026-08-21T10:22:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T10:22:29","slug":"arellano-mexican-food-is-exposing-trump-as-the-weak-salsa-taco-he-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7382","title":{"rendered":"Arellano: Mexican food is exposing Trump as the weak-salsa TACO he is"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the grand buffet of problems explaining President Donald Trump\u2019s abysmal approval ratings, reserve a tray for Mexican food.<\/p>\n

Read more Asking Eric: I get anxious about opening gifts in front of people<\/a><\/p>\n

Americans are rightfully frustrated with the myriad consequences of the war with Iran he plunged us into, the rising cost of living, his pharaonic obsession with monuments to himself and his overall doddering state of mind.<\/p>\n

But as this president afflicts the country with a prolonged civic bout of Montezuma\u2019s Revenge, Mexican food\u2019s role in the overall mess Trump has left us with is notable.<\/p>\n

One of this country\u2019s most popular cuisines has inadvertently spent this summer embarrassing Trump in fundamental ways \u2014 and I\u2019m not just talking about TACO, the acronym referring to how Trump Always Chickens Out on his most bombastic claims and threats. The most prominent \u2014 and disgusting \u2014 example has been outbreak of foodborne illness traced back to popular Mexican restaurant chains that have sickened tens of thousands of Americans while Trump has shrugged and effectively told us to eat frijoles.<\/p>\n

The Food and Drug administration traced an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a parasite-born intestinal disease, to contaminated lettuce grown in Mexico by Salinas-based Taylor Fresh Foods that made its way to Taco Bell. The world\u2019s biggest Mexican fast food chain quickly put out a statement that it removed all suspected lettuce from its restaurants and that \u201cwe encourage all relevant restaurants, retailers, and foodservice operators to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

If only the Trump administration was as proactive in caring for the well-being of Americans as the creators of Doritos Locos tacos and Crunchwrap Supremes.<\/p>\n

It turned out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network told state inspectors last year that they were no longer required to report to the agency any instances of the parasite that causes cyclosporiasis they found in this country\u2019s food supply. This was part of massive cutbacks at the CDC that reduced its staff by a quarter and cut billions of dollars in funding.<\/p>\n

When reporters confronted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with these facts, he responded that such criticisms were \u201cinvalid\u201d and that the cyclosporiasis outbreak was \u201cunder control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Make America Healthy Again? More like Make Americans Heave Always.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 4, the Food and Drug Administration revealed that a salmonella outbreak traced back to contaminated jalape\u00f1os imported from Mexico had left hundreds of Americans sick. But the feds were two weeks late to the news: By July 20, Chipotle had already removed all suspected jalape\u00f1os from its stores. Unlike the Trump administration, it had invested in food-safety tracking that quickly spotted the problem, a system implemented after the company suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in sales losses and a $25-million federal fine last decade due to repeated foodborne illnesses originating in its stores.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no fan of Chipotle\u2019s underwhelming hipster vibe or Taco Bell\u2019s over-salted options, but they know what the Trump administration seems to not understand: Americans deserve to eat without worrying about whether they\u2019ll get ill as a result. And they also know Americans especially like Mexican food, a cuisine dependent on exported produce that is now more expensive than ever because of Trump\u2019s misguided tariffs and overall bellicosity to our Latin America trading partners.<\/p>\n

You would think Trump himself would know: Remember the infamous photo he posted on Cinco de Mayo during his first term of him smiling at his desk appearing ready to chow down on a giant taco salad bowl?<\/p>\n

Read more West Nile virus activity in California at five-year high<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Which leads to the second section of Trump\u2019s combo plate of bad Mexican food news this year. On the same day the FDA belatedly disclosed the jalape\u00f1o salmonella outbreak, Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet posted on social media that a college student complained to him that \u201ca burrito shouldn\u2019t cost $20.\u201d Kolvet correctly pointed out that many people currently feel the cost of living is too high, and rightfully suggested that Republican Party leaders should sympathize with such concerns lest they lose even more voters that they already have during Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n

Instead, Trump toadies from Vice President JD Vance to Rep. Dan Crenshaw urged young people to eat instant ramen and live frugally instead of splurge on burritos. That provoked other conservative activists to smack down the MAGA Men for showing how out of touch they are with how expensive everything is right now.<\/p>\n

Forget the Consumer Price Index: The cost of a burrito is the best way to judge how much the cost of living actually is. I haven\u2019t regularly bought them for years because they\u2019re just not worth it anymore.<\/p>\n

A delicious, slender bean-and-cheese burrito with no sauce at the venerable Al & Bea\u2019s in Boyle Heights is going for six bucks and change right now when it was about $2 cheaper two years ago. The gargantuan breakfast burritos at my favorite place to get one, Athenian III in Buena Park, run about $13. Even my go-to fast-food treat, a half-pound Del Taco bean-and-cheese burrito, costs $2.61 with tax at the closest location to my house.<\/p>\n

Remember when they were about a dollar? I do.<\/p>\n

As someone whose wife runs a restaurant, I don\u2019t blame businesses for hiking their prices; I blame Trump. He campaigned two years ago on stopping and reversing the runaway inflation that was happening toward the end of the Biden administration and won over a lot of Mexican Americans as a result. But when those voters can\u2019t even enjoy a carne asada burrito for lunch without thinking about whether they\u2019ll have enough money for the rest of the week, that should worry Trump and his team as the November midterms approach.<\/p>\n

That they\u2019re collectively still blaming Biden shows how pendejos<\/em> they are at best, and uncaring at worst.<\/p>\n

Back to that 2016 Cinco de Mayo photo of himself enjoying a taco salad sold at his Trump Hotel in Manhattan. It was peak Trump: daring opponents to call him out for appropriating a hallmark of Cal-Mex dining while thinking Americans would see the move as a metaphor for the bounties of riches and good times Trump would usher in for this country.<\/p>\n

A decade later, Trump just makes too many Americans want to run to the proverbial toilet and barf from all the slop he and his minions have cooked up for our country.<\/p>\n

Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. \u00a92026 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Miss Manners: Are my in-laws\u2019 gift requests considered normal?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tainted produce, $20 burritos and gutted health agencies reveal a presidency leaving voters sick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nArellano: Mexican food is exposing Trump as the weak-salsa TACO he is - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7382\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arellano: Mexican food is exposing Trump as the weak-salsa TACO he is - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tainted produce, $20 burritos and gutted health agencies reveal a presidency leaving voters sick\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7382\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-21T10:22:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7382#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7382\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Arellano: Mexican food is exposing Trump as the weak-salsa TACO he is\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-21T10:22:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7382\"},\"wordCount\":1130,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7382#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/363e3cfa2f5bfc51284e348e6153fb83-scaled.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7382#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7382\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7382\",\"name\":\"Arellano: Mexican food is exposing Trump as the weak-salsa TACO he is - 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