Cuban Americans who don’t support disgraced ex-president Donald Trump — and there are many of us — are disgusted and furious with his post-arraignment host, the landmark restaurant-bakery Versailles.
People on social media are calling an “embarrassment” and “shameful” the obsequious way Miami Republicans embraced Trump, sang happy birthday and organized a prayer circle — as if he had returned from fighting a war, not surrendering after a historic federal indictment.
But should we really take Versailles to task — or was the Trump takeover an inevitable act of democratic free speech, as some claim in defense of the restaurant and/or Trump’s supporters?
According to my reporting, the situation is more nuanced than what was seen on television.
Certainly, it was heartbreaking to see the iconic gathering place for exiles become the setting for Trump to clean up his image after being booked and fingerprinted on 37 felony counts of alleged lawless, treasonous behavior.
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After all, the restaurant’s Republican founder, the late Felipe Valls Sr., used to proudly boast of having a bipartisan hall of fame of politicos swinging by every election season.
Versailles hosted Democrat Bill Clinton three times. Mayor Alex Penelas shared a cafecito there with Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore.
Lately, however, it seems the rowdy MAGA crowd has laid claim to the terrain as theirs.
But it isn’t, really.
Perhaps the Democrats have abandoned it?
Versailles, its fans assure me, is still the quintessential Miami spot where all of us — no matter the political party — have celebrated Marlins and Heat championships and the death of tyrant Fidel Castro. It’s the setting where local and national media set up cameras to gauge Cuban-American opinion, whether it’s the launch of President Obama’s engagement policy or to protest Cuba’s decades-long crackdown on human rights.
Food and politics
The Valls family, a mix of Republicans (father and son) and Democrats (some in the younger generation), wasn’t there on Tuesday to greet Trump.
“I’m on a family vacation and disconnected,” Felipe Valls Jr. texted me Thursday, declining to comment further. He referred me to spokesman Freddy Balsera, a well-known Democrat and family friend.
Trump didn’t ask for the owners’ permission to make an appearance after court, Balsera told me. Local party operatives arranged the drive-by. If some media knew about it, it was because the Trump camp leaked it, Balsera said.
“Trump has really capable advisers locally — and I’m saying this as a Democrat — but you have to give them credit,” he said. “If you want to make an impact on the Latin community, you go there. No, the Vallses didn’t know he was going.”
In fact, Valls Jr. has said in the past that which politician shows up isn’t “something I can control.” He also has said the political activity hurts more that it helps business.
“Versailles is more Miami’s restaurant than ours,” Valls, Jr., now at the helm, told me when I profiled the restaurant on its 40th anniversary in 2011. “Few restaurants are taken to heart by the community like Versailles. It’s really amazing. They really feel like it’s theirs. It really is. Three generations of Cubans, tourists, Latin Americans, Anglos have come through here.”
He reiterated the same thing in 2021, when the Herald again wrote about the restaurant on its 50th anniversary.
Con man didn’t pay — again
So there you have it, it’s not Trumplandia — though it sure looks like it sometimes.
“Food for everyone!” Trump promised as he walked into a Republican Party cast that included state Sen. Ileana Garcia (first elected by 35 votes) and Trump-endorsed Miami-Dade Commissioner Kevin Cabrera.
A crass, let-them-eat-croquetas moment reminiscent of when Trump threw paper towels into a crowd in Puerto Rico when he visited after catastrophic Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Plus, the cheap conman didn’t pay for a single croqueta or pastelito consumed by his followers as he promised, Miami New Times first reported and I confirmed.
Just another lie by the voter-fired Liar-in-Chief.
“As far as I know, everyone who was there paid for their own meal,” Balsera said. “I don’t think the Valls are too keen on people who dine and dash.”
Trump used us again, like he did Bay of Pigs veterans to get their endorsement after his negotiations with the Castro regime for a Havana Tower and Varadero golf course went south.
Here’s my recommendation: Rather than focus on Versailles, read the 49-page indictment. The extent of its gravity should change minds better than any restaurant boycott, which some have suggested.
Having said this, Miamians who have patronized his eatery for decades are right to feel disgust when a criminally charged politician uses a beloved institution as backdrop for his disinformation campaign.
Seeing Trump supporters singing “Happy Birthday” to the American caudillo reminded me of the Cuban music acts exiles oppose in Miami for singing to Fidel Castro.
“I haven’t visited Versailles in at least a decade precisely because it’s where the Cuban right-wing extremists congregate,” Victoria Rivero Elliott, a patron whom I quoted in my 40th-anniversary story and who used to love how warmly the staff treated her and her family told me Thursday. “On Tuesday, I felt deeply ashamed of and embarrassed by the Cuban Trumpistas’ behavior. We truly are a banana republic.”
She added: “And for whatever it’s worth, I would feel the same if it had been Islas Canarias or Havana Harry’s or Havana 1957. It was the people’s behavior that made the spectacle so sordid.”
Forget a boycott
Some Democrats are calling for a boycott of Versailles, but this strategy, more often than not, doesn’t work and only serves to yield even more ground to the opposition.
The Trump episode was lamentable, but what Democrats need to do is reclaim their place at the Versailles table.
The times call for courage, not backing down.
We, as a community, must survive Trump and whoever comes next.
Let’s keep the croquetas neutral.
