Doral, Florida
THE ICONIC EL AREPAZO RESTAURANT IN DORAL is so central to the city’s Venezuelan community that it has hosted communal celebrations of the actions of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

When Biden granted Temporary Protected Status for 320,000 Venezuelans in 2021, many joyfully gathered at the restaurant, which is widely known for its arepas stuffed with slow-roasted pork, chorizo, or cheese, and its Venezuelan and Colombian empanadas.

But the city’s Venezuelans, who make up about 40 percent of the Miami-Dade County city’s population of 75,000, are not all locked-in Democrats. In the 2024 election, Trump won Doral by 23 points—a 19-point leap from 2020. Venezuelan exiles there had long dreamed of the day when dictator Nicolás Maduro would be ousted from power in their home country. So when the United States conducted a military operation in January to remove Maduro from office and bring him to New York to stand trial, Venezuelans again celebrated at El Arepazo.

Trump himself has even made an appearance there. Following his overtly political “Shield of the Americas” summit at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in March, he popped into El Arepazo for a four-minute visit.¹

The restaurant’s owner, Maximo Alvarez—a Trump supporter and longtime Republican who spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2020—beamed as Trump greeted him with a handshake. “You have been the best president we have seen in our life!” Alvarez yelled. Afterward, Trump told the assembled press and onlookers that Alvarez had been his “friend for a long time.” Overcome, Alvarez quietly intoned, “I just want to be loyal to you.”

“I know. You always have been,” Trump responded, clasping the owner’s shoulder.

What has this loyalty earned him? I went to Doral this past week to see. And what I saw was ...