Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump kisses a woman whom he brought up on stage during a rally Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

As Donald Trump complained about how his nose looked on the cover of People magazine last week, he spotted a woman in the crowd waving a copy.

“There it is! Come here!” Trump said, walking across the stage and pulling up Myriam Witcher, an immigrant from Colombia who has become one of his super-fans. Witcher bounced with the excitement of a teenaged girl meeting a boy-band heartthrob: “I love Mr. Trump!”

“I am Hispanic,” she proclaimed to the mostly white crowd at a rally here on Thursday afternoon, “and I vote for Mr. Trump!”

The encounter, Trump quickly acknowledged to the crowd, was so perfect that it seemed staged: A self-described Hispanic woman living in an early-voting state declaring her support for the Republican presidential front-runner who has had difficulty connecting with Hispanic voters — especially as he has suggested that many illegal immigrants are criminals and rapists,  called for the deportation of the 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States and advocated for the construction of a massively expensive wall along the southern border and no longer granting automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.

Despite the crowds of angry immigration activists who gather outside many of his events, Trump insists that most Hispanic voters love him. At the beginning of the rally, Trump took credit for employing thousands of Hispanics at his construction sites and resorts. Then Witcher joined him on stage and used the word “love” over and over again.

“And is this a set-up?” Trump asked Witcher, as she shook her head. “Did I ever meet you before? Huh?”

Witcher then exploded with enthusiasm, jumping up and down: “We love you! We love you! We love you!”

“I swear to you — I think she’s totally beautiful and yet I’ve never met her before,” Trump said. “This all started with a People magazine.”

Trump signed the magazine, kissed Witcher on the head and sent her back to her seat, declaring: “And that’s my relationship with Hispanics.” Later in the day, he tweeted: “Just leaving Las Vegas. Unbelievable crowd! Many Hispanics who love me and I love them!”

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SOURCE: Jenna Johnson 
The Washington Post