The most-watched Spanish-language television network in the United States is cutting ties with reality TV star Donald Trump's Miss USA beauty pageant because of his recent claim that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers.
Trump, no stranger to failure and rejection, responded to Univision's announcement with defiance.
"The Mexican government and others are putting tremendous pressure on Univision to break their signed and fully effective contract with the Miss Universe Organization because Mr. Trump has been exposing to the public, and the world, the significant damage that is being done at the southern border, and the terrible and costly trade deals that the United States is incompetently making with Mexico (these deals are great for Mexico and horrible for the United States)," the real estate mogul said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
When Trump announced earlier this month that he would run for president in 2016, he promised he'd clean up the country's broken immigration system by building a "great wall" on America's southern border.
He also accused Mexico of burdening the United States with its riffraff.
"They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime," Trump said. "They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting."
Unimpressed with the GOP candidate's remarks, Univision announced soon thereafter that it would dump its coverage of all Trump-connected projects, especially the Miss USA pageant, which is run by a company in which Trump partly owns.
But Trump didn't back down, vowing in his statement to the Examiner to protest the network's decision.
"Mexican leadership has been doing serious damage to the United States by out-negotiating our representatives and political leaders," Trump said. "They are taking our jobs, taking our money and at the same time hurting us at the border with illegals from all over the world freely flowing into our country."
"Mr. Trump cannot be silenced on this very important problem for the United States," it said. "I have great respect for Mexico and love the Mexican people, but my loyalty is to the United States and making our country great again!"
Later, on Fox News, Trump threatened to sue Univision for breach of contract.
Critics have long questioned Univision's political biases, as its owners and several of its on-air anchors have voiced support in the past for Democratic candidates, most especially Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Alberto Ciurana, Univision's president of programming and content, uploaded a photo to Instagram recently that seemingly compared Trump to Dylann Storm Roof, an alleged white supremacist who stands accused of shooting and killing nine black churchgoers last week in Charleston, S.C.
Univision announced recently that it would host one of the many 2016 GOP primary debates.