ANAHEIM – About 100 supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rallied at Anaheim City Hall on Sunday afternoon, arguing that his support among the Latino community is stronger than has been widely reported.

The rally, organized by Latinos for Trump, was part of an initiative termed Operation Taco Bowl – an apparent reference to a Cinco de Mayo photo of Trump eating a taco bowl with a caption that read, “I love Hispanics.”

Trump supporters took turns standing beside two mannequin caricatures of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and telling the crowd why they support Trump.

Chants of “viva Trump” complemented the usual slogans at Trump rallies, such as “USA! USA!,” “build that wall,” and “Hillary for Prison.”

Speeches were aimed at countering Democratic arguments that Trump is racist.

“I don’t believe any of the liberal media bias that says Trump is a racist or a bigot,” said Eddy Rodriguez, 37, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who drove to Anaheim from his Lake Elsinore home to attend the rally. “His businesses – successful businesses – have hired Latinos, blacks, women. I support Trump 100 percent.”

An NBC/SurveyMonkey poll from Wednesday found Trump trailing by 51 points among Latinos. His standing has been marred among Hispanics by a restrictive immigration vision, labels such as “rapist” to describe undocumented Mexican immigrants and his questioning whether a U.S. judge of Mexican ancestry can impartially rule on his case.

“They’re desperate now to get support anyway they can,” said Gaby Hernandez, a Latina activist from Santa Ana. “They’ll get their token Latinos to support them, but those people don’t have our (the Latino community) best interests in mind.”

Bloomberg contributed to this report.

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