Linda Ronstadt smiles as she talks about her book “Feels like Home,” during the 2023 Tucson Festival of Books.

Linda Ronstadt

 

Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star, File 2023

Icon Linda Ronstadt on Wednesday ripped into Donald Trump’s campaign stop at her namesake Tucson venue.

Trump held a campaign rally Thursday afternoon at the Tucson Convention Center’s Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.

“It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit,” Ronstadt posted on Facebook Wednesday evening.

“I don’t just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance — although there’s that,” Ronstadt continues.

Linda Ronstadt rips into Trump's 'hate-show' stop at namesake Tucson venue

Tucson legend Linda Ronstadt, holding her cat Joey, turned to social media Wednesday to say she is unhappy about Trump’s campaign stop in Tucson. It is being held Thursday at her namesake venue, the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.

Courtesy Linda Ronstadt

“For me it comes down to this: In Nogales and across the southern border, the Trump Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum. Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said met the criteria for torture.”

Linda Ronstadt starts her Tucson Festival of Books panel with recollections of Sonora, Mexico and her travels there. Her book, “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands,” highlights her life and legacy in the southwest. Video by Pascal

Trump planned to talk about “the struggling economy and the rising cost of housing,” according to a campaign news release. Trump, however, has a history of digging into a variety of favorite political topics, with immigration being at the top.

Trump’s rally was his first visit to Tucson since October 2020, although the Republican presidential nominee visited the U.S.-Mexico border last month in Cochise County. His running mate, JD Vance, visited the same Arizona border area weeks earlier

Ronstadt’s online message also included a note to Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio.

“I raised two adopted children in Tucson as a single mom. They are both grown and living in their own houses,” Ronstadt wrote. “I live with a cat. Am I half a childless cat lady because I’m unmarried and didn’t give birth to my kids? Call me what you want, but this cat lady will be voting proudly in November for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”