There are a number of reasons why people say they’ll be voting Donald Trump in November. They might be disaffected by the kind of free trade agreements that Hillary Clinton champions. They might be sick of political correctness. They might feel like the current political and media elite doesn’t represent them.
But the key issue that Trump has constantly harped on that many mainstream Republicans won’t touch with a ten-foot-pole is immigration. He’s activated a key core constiutuency who are sick of the weak rhetoric from other leaders – and they want illegal Hispanic immigrants booted out, a big ol’ wall built on the Mexican border, and Muslims barred from entry.
Thing is, there’s a difference between riling up r/The_Donald and actually governing a country, and Trump is starting to walk back some of the harder edges of that rhetoric – and his fans are not keen.
The other day, Trump appeared on conservative talk show Hannity to chat immigration. In an absolutely weird exchange, he floated a decidedly un-Trump idea: giving amnesty to illegal immigrants who have been in America for a long time, as long as they pay whatever taxes they owe. It’s suspiciously similar to Barack Obama‘s own plan.
The audience weren’t so crash hot on that idea, and Don seemed to be working his policy out on the fly based on their applause. Which is, as we know, the best way to determine public policy.
Now he’s been in damage control mode all weekend, with his surrogates hitting up the morning shows in an attempt to tell Trump’s suspicious supporters that Trump is still keen on his hard-line plans. His nominee for vice president, Mike Pence, told CNN that he’s absolutely still mad for that wall, but they’ll be sorting out the details quite soon:
I mean, you’re going to hear more detail in next two weeks that lays out all the policies I think Donald Trump will articulate what we do with the people who are here… what you see going on right now—and I think, at a certain level, it’s very refreshing, because it’s the Donald Trump that I see every day—is, you see a CEO at work.
I dunno about you, but to me a statement like that absolutely doesn’t rule out the prospect of some changes. But hey. Trump supporter and former Republican candidate Chris Christie also made a few mystifying remarks:
There’s going to be, you know, some decisions he’s going to have to make as president regarding these folks, and I think what he’s said [is] let’s get let’s first get all of the bad actors out of the country.
Wait a moment – ‘bad actors’? So deporting violent crims? Sure, but that’s absolutely not the policy that has got the Trump fans frothing. They want ’em all out.
On Twitter, passionate Trump supporters – a.k.a. The Nazi Pepe Squad (a name I just made up) are making it clear that they expect the Don to keep up his end of the bargain.
If Trump decides to Cuck on Immigration his support will crumble
Yes, I just embedded two tweets with ‘cuck’ in them. But a scan of Trump supporters on Reddit also shows that they’re somewhat uneasy about Trump signalling he’ll adopt an immigration plan that looks a helluva lot like Jeb Bush‘s one. You know. That Jeb Bush.
I think Trump most likely will ‘officially’ moderate his stance on immigration, now that Clinton leads pretty comprehensively in all current polls and it’s clear that the anti-immigrant constituency isn’t quite enough to score him the presidency. But we’ll see! Maybe he’ll double down hard! You simply don’t know with the big fella.
