When Donald Trump talks about the criminal indictments against him, he often compares his treatment to that of a political dissident in an authoritarian regime.
In the last year, he has provoked controversy by describing the prosecutions as a “Stalinist Russia horror show” and himself as like Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years imprisoned in South Africa.
But speaking at a rally in Hialeah, Florida, on Wednesday, the former president chose a different comparison.
“Just like the Cuban regime, the Biden regime is trying to put their political opponent in jail,” Mr Trump told thousands of supporters assembled in a sports stadium. “We are not the ones endangering American democracy, we are the ones saving American democracy.”
His choice of a Latin American analogy was deliberate and designed to appeal to Latino voters who have become a key battleground demographic in the race for the White House.
In Florida, Latino voters are thought to be partly driving the state’s shift towards the Republicans that saw the party pick up a supermajority in state legislative elections last year.