MIAMI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Donald Trump took his exploratory Reform Party U.S. presidential bid to Cuban Miami on Monday, wowing hardline exiles who admire the billionaire real estate mogul's opposition to their homeland's communist government.
Trump was met on the tarmac by leaders of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), a powerful Cuban exile organisation often courted by politicians, when his red-white-and-blue jet, with ``Trump'' in large letters on the outside, touched down at Miami International Airport.
Trump toured a local museum in the city's ``Little Havana'' neighbourhood and viewed an exhibition memorializing Cuban exiles who died during the ill-fated April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
``I really admire toughness and courage, and I will tell you that the people of the brigade really have that,'' Trump said to applause from an audience of Cuban-Americans, referring to the Bay of Pigs veterans.
Referring to those killed in the invasion, Trump won more applause by criticising the government of Democratic President John F. Kennedy, saying they had died ``all because of the fact you were let down by our country.''
A band of Cuban exiles trained and backed by the United States launched the Bay of Pigs invasion in a bid to topple President Fidel Castro's leftist government. Badly outmanned and outgunned by Castro's forces and without the direct support of U.S. troops, they were defeated in three days, with
90 of the exiles being killed.
CANF, a lobbying group founded by Cuban exiles who oppose Castro's government, invited Trump to Miami because of his strong support for the 39-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba.
``Mr. Trump has used his public platform ... to help elevate discourse about Cuba to the top of the national debate within the context of freedom first, trade later -- the only policy position befitting America as leader of the free world,'' CANF Chairman Jorge Mas said in a statement.
Trump filed to join the Reform Party in October, and announced he had formed a committee to explore a run for the White House as the party's candidate in 2000.
17:37 11-15-99
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