Trump also would risk opening up his other key promises to supporters to renewed scrutiny.
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Speaking to Sean Hannity of Fox News, Trump reiterated his opposition to “amnesty” but seemed to advocate for letting law-abiding illegal immigrants who have been in the country for a long time pay a fine so they can remain in the country.
“I want to move them out”, he said last July, averring that he would proceed to let “the good ones” back in.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said on Saturday: “Trump said nothing today that he hasn’t said many times before, including in his convention speech – enforce our immigration laws, uphold the constitution and be fair and humane while putting American workers first”.
For Trump, whose rise to the Republican nomination was based in large part on his hardline immigration policies, the comments are the clearest sign yet that he is reconsidering his pledge to deport all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., a key part of his campaign platform.
The backbone of Trump’s support has been his successful ability to tap into that segment of the racist Republican Party that hates immigrants.
At outlets like Breitbart, whose president Steve Bannon recently took over as CEO of Trump’s campaign, Republicans who support a path to legal status are frequently attacked as “amnesty” supporters who sold out the conservative base.
Trump then polled the audience again, when asked what was in his gut, Trump stated that asking the audience was “like a poll”.
Trump was introduced by Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, who argued that Clinton “committed numerous, numerous serious federal felonies” and that recent emails suggesting favors traded between the Clinton Foundation and Clinton’s State Department amounted to a scandal potentially “bigger than Watergate”.
“No citizenship”, Trump told the Fox host. He said the 600,000 Latino-owned businesses in Florida would benefit under his economic plan, but he offered few specifics. “Thank you, Democrats! Democrats are about to learn what a “petard” is”. “There could be a way to figure out how to do it so we’re not here to harm people, ” she said. He said “anything is possible” if enough people band together, and predicted that Trump’s presidential campaign would “smash the establishment”. “I’m hearing you. But I will say this, if I was an American citizen I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me”, Farage said.
“Honestly, I don’t think she’s all there”, he added.
Trump has sought to align himself with the Brexit movement, noting he had said before the June 23 referendum that Britons should vote to leave.
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“They feel people aren’t standing up for them and they have in many cases given up on the whole electoral process and I think you have a fantastic opportunity here with this campaign”, he said. He predicted that Trump, who supported Britain’s departure from the European Union, would stage a comeback and win in November.
