Trump appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor” amid reports that he will alter his stance on immigration issues. “Well, I’m gonna do the same thing”.
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Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally on August 12 in Erie, Pennsylvania.
At another point, Trump was pressed on whether he agreed with President Eisenhower, whose Operation Wetback, as O’Reilly said, “rounded them up” and “took them out”. “No, I’m not flip-flopping”, he told Fox News. “I’m not talking about detention centers”. He has called Mexicans “rapists and criminals”, in his announcement speech, and has long since called for a mass deportation effort. We’re going to enforce the laws that are on the books today”, Pence, Donald TrumpDonald TrumpTrump polls “Hannity” crowd on mass deportations Whitman makes good on Clinton donation Pence: “Trump’s immigration plans “continue to be worked out” MORE’s running mate, said in an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett. Those are extraordinary concessions, given that his entire candidacy rests so heavily on precisely the opposite assertions.
We have more evidence this morning that the Trump campaign is trying to pull off a painful and likely impossible pivot from the mass deportation of 3% of the U.S. population with an Einsatzgruppen-sounding thing called the “deportation force” to something like exactly what Trump and Republicans have been railing about for years: the deportation policy followed by President Barack (oh hell, let’s just say it Hussein!) Obama.
“What people don’t know is that Obama got tremendous numbers of people out of the country, Bush the same thing”. Only Trump says he’d pursue Obama’s policy “perhaps with a lot more energy”. So what should be done about them? Any move to embrace more moderate reform proposals, such as creating a possible pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants or abandoning plans for a wall, would be viewed as a betrayal by many of Trump’s most ardent supporters, even while a recent Gallup survey showed that 76 percent of all Republicans favor creating a path to citizenship. He also implicitly conceded that the solution he has offered for the rest for the past year now – their proactive, speedy removal – isn’t going to happen, while still refusing to say what should ultimately be done about them.
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Questions have been raised recently about Trump’s position on immigration, after campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said it is “to be determined” whether the GOP nominee’s plans will include a deportation force. But that is what happened.
