Donald Trump has declared that he will “win the Latino vote” in the 2016 presidential election, despite his declaration upon announcing his candidacy that Mexicans seeking immigration to the US were “rapists”.



“I have a great relationship with the Mexican people,” the real-estate mogul turned aspiring president said in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday. “I have many legal immigrants working with me. And many of them come from Mexico.”

“They love me, I love them,” Trump said. “And I’ll tell you something, if I get the nomination, I’ll win the Latino vote.”

Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian seeking clarification on whether his prediction about the demographics of the presidential race was based on internal polling.

The chances of Trump actually winning the Latino vote would appear to be slim, however, given that he insisted last month that Mexican immigrants were “bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and they’re rapists” – and that he has remained defiant amid a backlash from Mexico to corporate sponsors, saying Mexican migrants bring “tremendous infectious disease” to the country, which is not true.

While there has been no specific polling yet on the candidate’s popularity among Latino voters, a CNN/ORC survey conducted at the end of June found that in a potential general-election matchup between Hillary Clinton and Trump, 81% of “non-white” voters would choose Clinton. Only 14% said they would vote for Trump. (Four percent would vote for neither, and 1% had no opinion.)

In a Quinnipiac University poll released this week, a majority of Republicans said they thought illegal immigrants already in the US should be allowed to stay. In a more informal poll on Twitter pitting Trump against an avocado, he trailed the fruit by a margin of more than 10-to-1.

Linda T Sánchez, a congresswoman from California and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said Trump’s prediction was illogical.

“Donald Trump owes an apology to the millions of Mexicans in this country who have contributed their talents to the greatness of the United States,” Sánchez said in a statement provided to the Guardian.

“His comments were not only wrong but divisive and perpetuate hateful stereotypes toward the Latino community,” Sánchez said. “There is simply no logic to him thinking he can win the Latino vote.”

Trump said in the NBC interview on Wednesday that he had “nothing to apologize for” regarding his comments about Mexico.

“Hillary Clinton is not going to be able to create jobs, I will tell you right now,” he said. “Neither is Jeb Bush going to be able to create jobs. I will create jobs and the Latinos will have jobs that they don’t have right now. And I will win that vote.”

In the wake of his claims regarding Mexico and Mexicans – he also pledged to build a “great, great wall” along the US-Mexico border – Trump has been labelled an “extremely silly man” by America’s largest Latino civil rights organisation.

The latest mid-controversy defiance is not the first time Trump has spoken of his popularity among people of color. In 2011, he was prominent in the “birther” movement, which believes Barack Obama was born overseas, yet he spoke of his fond relationship with African Americans.

“I have a great relationship with the blacks. I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks,” Trump said.

The former host of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice – he stepped aside before the network dumped his Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants amid the latest row – had earlier accused Obama of being “the least transparent president in the history of this country” for failing to release his passport records and college records. In June, Trump refused to release his own passport records or college records.

A poll released in June suggested that in a race between Hillary Clinton and Trump, he would take only 18% of the African American vote.

At a campaign stop in Iowa on Wednesday, Florida senator Marco Rubio said Trump’s comments were “inaccurate, and they’re offensive, and they’re divisive”.

“Voters are capable of distinguishing the Republican party from Donald Trump,” he said.

• Additional reporting by Sabrina Siddiqui in Cedar Rapids, Iowa