The cancellations come as the Trump campaign pushes back on reports he was “flip-flopping” on his plan to deport the more than 11 million immigrants in the USA illegally.
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That seemed like a comedown, but Trump sought to dispel that notion on Monday, saying he was not flip-flopping and he still favoured “firm, but fair” measures as before. He did not elaborate on his policy.
“I’m not flip-flopping”, Trump told Fox News a day after his new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said in another interview that Trump’s deportation plans were “to be determined”.
“He supports making sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country”.
Trump’s immigration position has been a centrepiece of his campaign.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said over and over he would force undocumented immigrants to leave the country as president.
Strong measures against illegal immigration – such as a wall along the border with Mexico – have been a key component of his campaign, one he has been hammering for the start.
He said it was Trump who brought up the issue of those who are in the U.S. illegally and asked the group to share their ideas on how to deal with them.
“The next two weeks we’re going to be talking about the polls tightening”, Conway predicted, saying the rough patch in the polls “lights a fire under us”. The Republican nominee appeared to soften his stance on mass deportation, and he even suggested he would follow President Obama’s policy regarding deportation.
Conway had said Sunday that Trump “doesn’t hurl personal insults”.
“Donald Trump will be Donald Trump and what’s clear is that he’s risky for the Latino community”, Renteria said.
A short time later, he told BuzzFeed: “He said people who are here is the toughest part of the immigration debate, that it must be something that respects border security but deals with this in a humane and efficient manner”.
“Donald Trump is back in Hillary Clinton’s head”, Conway said. Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said that she was voting for Donald Trump but not endorsing him.
Sources present at the meeting told Univision News the GOP nominee was both apologetic about his rhetoric towards Mexicans and open to the policy of offering a path to legalization for the millions of immigrants now residing in the country illegally.
“You’re going to have a deportation force, and you’re going to do it humanely”, he told MSNBC in November 2015.
He has repeatedly called for mass deportations of people in the country illegally, a stance critics say is inhumane and unrealistic.
Conway’s description reflects Trump’s comments to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly on Monday. The former secretary of state has said that militant groups like Islamic State have begun using Mr Trump’s proposed Muslim ban as a recruitment tool.
Still, Univision reported that Trump regretted comments he made in June: “When Mexico sends its people they’re not sending their best”.
But her statement that Trump’s position was yet “to be determined” was seen as an attempt to throw the door open to softening the rhetoric, as the campaign has done before.
Supporters cheer as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., Aug. 20, 2016.
Ms Conway was appointed last week in a shake-up in which the campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned and conservative media firebrand Stephen Bannon, who led Breitbart News, took over as campaign chief executive.
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Clinton has been off the campaign trail for several days, concentrating her efforts on major fundraising events, meeting wealthy donors in Martha’s Vineyard, a summer playground along the Atlantic Ocean in the northeastern state of MA.
