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LOOK: Catholic actor Eduardo Verástegui gives Trump image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The large image of the Virgin was presented during a Latinos for Trump event in Miami.
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Stephen
Kokx
Stephen Kokx
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(LifeSiteNews) — Catholic actor and human rights activist Eduardo Verastegui gifted Donald Trump a massive image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at a Latinos for Trump event on Tuesday in Miami.

Verastegui is the producer of the hit movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on real-life events involving child trafficking. He unfurled the banner of Mary while speaking to Trump.

“Today, I gave President Trump the most powerful thing that united and keeps Mexico united despite everything,” the Mexican American activist said in an X post. “Our Mother and Lady, the Virgin of Guadalupe.”

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was imprinted on the “tilma” or cloak of a man named Juan Diego in December 1531 on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico City. Diego had experienced four apparitions of Mary, and after the last one to convince the stubborn archbishop they were real, she miraculously “appeared” on his garment while standing on top of the moon with the sun behind her. The indigenous peoples in the area at the time would have understood that she and not the false goddesses they had been worshipping was to be honored. Today, Juan Diego’s cloak is housed at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. When Hillary Clinton toured the Basilica in 2009, she famously asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Diego Monroy replied, “God.”

Verastegui was seated two spots to the right of Trump at the event. Catholics for Trump chair Mercedes Schlaap sat next to him. During the roundtable, he called Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris “evil” while stating that 300,000 children have gone missing at the border.

“Kamala! Where are the children? Kamala! Where are the children? You know, these people — Kamala and Biden — they’re the biggest human traffickers in history. And everyone knows that,” he said to massive applause.


Verastegui, who is active on X, has spent the last 24 hours posting about the many stories the media has published on his remarks.

“We have received thousands of messages of support, but the media focuses on a handful. We are doing well. We will succeed in regaining freedom in our nations. We will fight with all our strength because only God gives victory,” he said in one post.


“Joe Biden and Kamala are child traffickers and complicit in drug trafficking in the region. There is plenty of evidence. We have to stop this. The problem is the bad people on both sides of the border,” he alleged in another.


At the event’s conclusion, Verastegui joined with other speakers, including Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue, to pray over Trump.


This summer, Verastegui added his name to a public letter asking Pope Francis that “no further restrictions be placed on the traditional Latin Mass.”

His Sound of Freedom was also screened at the presidential palace in El Salvador for over 1,500 people by leader Nayib Bukele, who signed a Letter of Intent with Verástegui’s Viva México Movement promising to help eradicate child slavery.

Other Catholics have given Trump similar Catholic iconography this campaign season. Fr. James Altman told LifeSite’s John-Henry Westen in June that he delivered a St. Michael the Archangel statue to the former president through his son Barron when he was at a Mar-a-Lago event.

In September, a Carmelite priest blessed Trump with a relic of the true cross while also giving him a brown scapular, a woolen sacramental worn around the neck that serves as a sign of protection from Mary, the Mother of God.


Trump has made a more overt effort to reach out to Catholic voters in recent months. Aside from sharing a prayer to St. Michael on X on September 29, he wished Mary “Happy Birthday” on the Feast of her Nativity on September 8. His post included an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.


Trump also appeared at the Al Smith Dinner in New York City last week while Harris was campaigning in Wisconsin. Trump told the crowd that it was “very disrespectful” to Catholics that Harris would do that, adding, “Catholics, you got to vote for me. You better remember I’m here – and she’s not! I could’ve done that, too.”

Election Day is less than two weeks away in the United States. Many polls suggest voters are sharply trending in favor of Trump. At a recent rally, Harris shouted down two college students who proclaimed, “Christ is King!” and “Jesus is Lord.” The Trump campaign pounced on that behavior and in recent days Ben Carson, JD Vance, and Eric Trump have all said that Harris’ remarks indicate she is hostile to Christians

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