Politics –
Immigration Flip-Flop
Tricky For Trump
“Get ’em out of here!” “Build a wall!” “Send them all back!” Those slogans have been the very foundation of Donald Trump’s immigration policy. Except now… well… maybe not!
Politics
In perhaps one of the most epic flip-flops in modern political history, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is oddly walking back his anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant “deportation force” plans.
Trump and his advisors have been hinting all week that a “softening” of his harsh immigration policy was very possible. However, during an interview yesterday with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the Republican nominee made it official.
“When I look at the rooms and I have this all over, now everybody agrees we get the bad ones out,” Trump said. “But when I go through and I meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject…they’ve said, Mr. Trump, I love you, but to take a person that has been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and the family out, it’s so tough, Mr. Trump.”
Trump says he has been moved by concerns from fans who oppose his plans for a “deportation force” to remove all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
“Let me go a step further — they’ll pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them,” Trump added.
“What people don’t know is that Obama got tremendous numbers of people out of the country,” Trump continued, noting that he was going to focus on removing “the bad ones” (without being at all specific on how such a move would be possible). “Bush, the same thing. Lots of people were brought out of the country with the existing laws. Well, I’m going to do the same thing.”
When asked by Hannity if accommodations would be made for “those people that contribute to society, have been law-abiding, have kids here,” Trump replied, “There certainly can be a softening because we’re not looking to hurt people.”
Politics
For Trump to make such a drastic reversal some 70 days prior to the election is not only surprising but unprecedented. Most of the tens of thousands of supporters who filled arenas to support him did so because of his radical plans to “put the illegals out!” Now, where does Trump’s latest position leave his base of Mexican/Muslim-hating racists??
For supporters of former GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz, they have a message for Trump followers: “We told you so!”
“Everything Trump promises comes with an expiration date,” Cruz’s former Senate communications director Amanda Carpenter said. “We knew it during the primary, and now it is apparent he has duped his most loyal supporters on the issue they care about most, immigration. Don’t say we didn’t warn them.”
Even Trump’s fiercest protectors are crying foul.
“There’s nothing Trump can do that won’t be forgiven,” supporter Ann Coulter said of the GOP nominee… “Except change his immigration policies.”
So, what is Donald Trump’s game here? How does he go from saying “Throw the illegals out,” to “Eh…not so much” in such a short amount of time? Why is he doing this? How does this new plan jive with new campaign manager Steve Bannon of the ultra-conservative Breitbart News?
In the alternate universe known as Trump-World, it’s anyone’s guess!
.
.
James 1:8: "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." (KJV).
Thanks for the video DJ. I rarely agree with Krauthammer on anything. I agree with his take on this. .
Okay so you asked: "How does this new plan jive with new campaign manager Steve Bannon of the ultra-conservative Breitbart News?"
Gonna be tricky. Bannon is a White-nativist, I doubt this flip-flop was his idea. And some of his readers ain't happy about this at all. In fact,I did a quick drive-by of conservative world and let's just say Trump still has some solid support out there. But there is also a growing Anger building now…against him. But I digress. .
I hesitate to give credit to KellyAnne for this flip because ..well it's Trump for goodness sake!
What major issue hasn't that clown flipped-flopped on during these many months of running a sham of a presidential campaign? and often times within the same day. It's how the man thinks and operates.
The notion that he is wedded to anything or anyone but himself and his own whims is laughable.
But hey! who knows- he just might keep his promise to "Build That Wall."….(pause)…Lol. Yeah, Riiight….smh..
Btw- Yesterday was Ann Coulter's "In Trump We Trust" book launch. Coulter was so hyped about Trump's promise to deport 11 million illegal immigrants that she actually believed him!?!…and then she wrote a whole book singing his praises…lol
NY Magazine: "To Broaden His Base of Support, Donald Trump Humiliates Ann Coulter":
Excerpt:
“There’s nothing Trump can do that won’t be forgiven. Except change his immigration policies,” Coulter writes in her suddenly mistitled opus. As news spread of Trump’s proposal to grant some longtime undocumented U.S. residents the status of second-class non-citizens (as opposed to siccing the “deportation force” on them), the mood at Coulter’s book launch turned dim. […]
Trump is a fraud. In his twisted world Everything is negotiable or expendable. End of story.
Breitbart Reader:
He straight up lied to us. I called it, but it still sucks regardless. […]
Breitbart Reader:
That's the same kind of amnesty that GWB and John McCain said wasn't amnesty. Obviously, Trump lied about his support all along for amnesty to win the Republican Party nomination. Sorry, but I don't vote for amnesty supporters and I damn sure don't vote for people that are willing to do anything and say anything to win elections. Sorry Donald Trump, you lost my vote.
Trump then asked the audience what should be done about people who have been in the US for a long time and has been “terrific.”
He asked a heavily Hispanic loaded crowd in Texas. Had he asked the same thing in a crowd not so loaded with Hispanics, he would have been booed off the stage. [….]
Breitbart Reader:
Thanks Donald you just gave The B*tch the Presidency. I am no longer going to use The B*tch in the blogs, or talk you up to strangers and friends.
YOU HAVE LIED AND DONE THE BIG FLIP. We do NOT want Illegals PERIOD in America whether they are nice or mean they ARE illegal.
The Final The B*tch post
Rush Limbaugh: Trump’s Supporters Are Smart Enough to Not Care That He Lied to Them and Used Them
Excerpts (of his radio show):
I'm gonna say this very slowly so it has maximum impact.
Trump supporters don't care what he does or what he says because there is no way they are going to do anything that helps elect Hillary Clinton. It's no more complicated than that. There are many other reasons why Trump's supporters support him, and I don't know what percentage of the Trump support base represented by what I just said, but it's a sizable number of Trump supporters.
And you Drive-Byers are looking for mass defections. You're looking for people to be disappointed. You're looking for people to think that Trump has sold 'em out, lied to them. You're waiting for them to, in effect, come to Jesus and realize that they've been snookered from day one by Trump. You're not gonna find it. Because this has been bigger than Trump, it's about more than Trump. This movement that's there, however big it is, existed before Trump came along. Trump happens to be the guy, whether by accident or by design, who connected with this movement. Again, unknown how big it is.
There are many reasons why Trump supporters support Trump. There are many reasons why Trump supporters are loyal. There are many reasons why people are gonna vote for Trump and are excited. There's a lot of reasons why Trump draws huge crowds with lots of energy. One of the reasons why some of those people will never abandon Trump is because they're not gonna do anything that in their minds would help Hillary Clinton get elected. […]
H/T: RedState
…….in response to Rush……..
RS Reader:
Sure, Rush. Because if Hillary Clinton weren't the Democrat nominee these halfwits would definitely be so much less inclined to twist themselves into pretzels trying to justify their Cheeto-in-Chief's every brainfart. I'll buy that for a dollar!
Rush is really taking his irrelevance these days poorly and is hardly even trying anymore. He's halfway to turning his whole show into one big Apple tech talk podcast. […]
RS Reader:
What was that Trump and the Trumpsters said a few months back? About how he wasn't a politician like those other guys? About how those other guys said whatever it took to get elected and then didn't follow through on their promises? You know, those "GOPe" guys? And here they are excusing Trump for doing exactly that.
This week's events put some things further in order for us: Ann Coulter is apparently one rung up the ladder now from Rush Limbaugh, in terms of just how far gone into the cult they are. Both being far into the land of discreditable, of course. How could anybody take their advice seriously after this year? […]
RS Reader:
Damage control in a farcical scenario is naturally commensurately farcical. And the longer this tragicomedy is allowed to continue, the more inane Trump's enablers will end up sounding. […]
I wanted to be silent for a while today on purpose because I wanted to first see the fall out from Trumps new plan. Well it looks like the wheels are falling off his base. All the racist who could not wait for Trump to get in and run the illegals out of here are P'Oed today. But this plays right into everything that has already been said about Trump doesn't want to be president. If he cuts into his base he is done, end of story.
Ny Times:
“For me, the two phrases that were the last straws were, ‘It’s not amnesty,’ and ‘back taxes,’” said Mark Krikorian, of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies. “Those things are terms of art for the Gang of Eight-type crowd.”
“Betraying his base and making clear that, a year after he launched his campaign, he still doesn’t know really what he wants to do on immigration, is really the last straw, it seems to me,” Mr. Krikorian added of Mr. Trump.
For Mr. Trump, the new, moderate talk on immigration could help convince some on-the-fence voters, particularly whites, that he has more compassion for Hispanics and other minorities than his previous, hard-line positions would suggest.
But whatever the possible gains, Mr. Trump risks offending millions of conservatives. A first-time candidate, he made himself a hero of the Republican right wing in large part by casting himself as more hard-core on the immigration issue than any of his rivals. He vowed to build a wall, called immigrants “rapists,” promised to establish a “deportation force” and said every immigrant in the country illegally would be forced out.
That fired up a part of the Republican base that had been frustrated with the party leadership in Washington, whom they saw as too willing to compromise and negotiate with President Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats.
Mr. Trump’s most devoted supporters have ignored his many other inconsistencies. But if they perceive Mr. Trump to be backing away from what drew them to him in the first place, they could stay home.
Friday, Aug. 26, 2016
"Let’s Remember The Cowardly Conservative Leaders Who Betrayed Us For Trump"
Excerpts:
Donald Trump has not been alone in his crusade to make a grotesque mockery of conservatism. He’s had a lot of help, and most of that help has come from the supposed “leaders” of the very movement he seeks to destroy.
A whole host of prominent figures made enormous amounts of money pretending to be spokesmen for the cause, only to sell it down the river when the sentient pile of driftwood known as Donald Trump came floating by. These past few months have been a horrific bloodbath, as many famous and once-respected conservatives have gutted their credibility for a chance to latch themselves to Trump like barnacles on the Titanic. Some of these ideological hustlers may have, at one point, truly believed in the principles of which they’ve so handsomely profited, but when the principles finally jeopardized the profits, they did not hesitate to choose the latter over the former.
Donald Trump was able to co-opt conservatism and slap his name across the front of it, like he’s done with so many hotels and casinos and dozens of other defunct companies, because those entrusted with defending and protecting it retreated at the first sign of resistance. They hid from the populist mob or grabbed their pitchforks and joined in. And when conservatism suffers the same fate as so many of Trump’s bankrupted ventures, we will have these cowards to blame.
As unpleasant a task as it may be, I think we need to identify the traitors and remember their names. We do this not out of spite, but in keeping with the Bible’s many warnings about false prophets. Scripture urges us to “expose the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11) and avoid becoming partners with those “who deceive with empty words” (Ephesians 5:6). Colossians implores us not to be “taken captive by deceit.” We’re warned in 2 Timothy that the time will come when people will not want to hear the truth, so they will surround themselves with frauds who tell them what their “itching ears want to hear.” I believe we have arrived at that moment, and it is now urgent that we specifically identify these frauds and false teachers. This is not a fun or polite process, but it is necessary, so we must get on with it.
Unfortunately, the list of prominent conservative “leaders” who abandoned every hint of conservatism the moment Donald Trump came knocking is far too lengthy to list here in full. All I can do is acknowledge a few who’ve gone to considerable lengths to flaunt their lack of integrity and moral courage: [….] The Blaze (Full Read)
– Matt Walsh, blogger and writer, speaker, "and professional truth sayer"
Btw- I caught the speech Hillary gave yesterday evening when she went after Trump for his embracing of the "alt right" (aka White Supremacist) groups.
Some people are calling it "a shredding" But to me, it was the political equivalent of her busting him up-side the head with a 2-by-4 wooden plank.
It really was quite the sight to behold.
TPM Reader:
Not one prominent Republican has spoken up to defend him after she shredded him yesterday. "Crickets," as James Fallows pointed out.
If you ask me the triage phase began some time ago. Like in a crowded combat hospital, they've decided he's hopeless and wheeled him out into the hall, so they can get to work saving the ones who have a chance. He can keep lying and lying but people are making up their minds on the vast preponderance of evidence and the clownish, transparent manipulativeness he exudes like radioactivity. […]
"Hillary Clinton’s Alt-Right Speech Isolated and Destroyed Donald Trump"
Excerpt:
Hillary Clinton used to have a reputation for being more ruthless than her husband. Bill Clinton was often described as fundamentally conflict-averse, more eager to persuade his opponents than attack them. Hillary, by contrast, was known for identifying villains and going after them. In his book, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Carl Bernstein quotes former Clinton adviser Dick Morris saying that Hillary had “a quality of aggressiveness and strength about her that he doesn’t have. A killer instinct. Her genre of advocacy is always straight ahead—fight, battle, take the fight to the other side.” (Morris was speaking before he turned on the Clintons.
We hadn’t seen this Hillary in a while. She stayed under wraps during the Democratic primary, never seriously going after Bernie Sanders. But the killer in Hillary came out on Thursday, delivering a devastating indictment of Donald Trump’s associations with the far-right fringe, one meant to permanently delegitimize him among decent people. “A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military,” she said, daring Republican officials to disagree.
With Trump already trailing badly in most polls, Clinton could have tried to yoke him to the Republican Party so he would drag it down with him. Instead, she sought to isolate and personally destroy him.
By definitively linking him to the alt-right, she shredded any remaining legitimacy he had with sane Republicans. […]
– Michelle Goldberg, Slate writer