On Aug. 31, Donald Trump delivered his much-anticipated immigration speech in Phoenix, Arizona, a state with a burgeoning immigrant population and possible swing state come November.
It doesn’t seem long ago that the media laughed as Trump launched himself into the Republican primary contest with his speech infamously proclaiming, “We will build a great wall on our Southern border and Mexico will pay for that wall.” It has become the mantra of the 2016 election circus that his hardline, albeit unrealistic, stance on immigration propelled Trump to the Republican nomination with a record number of votes.
By staking out his position on the extreme right, along with his calls to ban Muslim immigration, The Donald was able to crush each and every one of his opponents for being “weak on immigration” and in “favor of amnesty” given their reluctance to support such draconian policies.
Now Trump and his cohorts are faced with the reality of having to appeal to a vastly different general electorate, compared to the anti-immigrant Republican primary crowds to whom Trump was throwing this red meat in his rallies.
After a couple weeks of being hammered by the news media on the specifics of his immigration plan, whether he intends to deport all 10-13 million immigrants or how Mexico will pay for this 2,000-mile border wall, the Trump Campaign announced that he would hold a conference in Mexico City with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto who, interestingly, also has a favorability rating hovering at or below 25 percent like Trump, according to USA Today.
To his credit, Trump used this trip to Mexico City in an attempt to boost his credibility with moderate voters who have a difficult time imagining the former reality TV star performing presidential tasks like meeting with foreign leaders and yes, even speaking off of a script. In surprisingly diplomatic fashion Trump discussed the importance of U.S.-Mexico relations and the mutual benefits of strong economic competition between NAFTA countries and the rest of the world. They also discussed the humanitarian crisis posed by children from South America risking their lives to get through Mexico and to the United States.
Was this it? Is Trump finally declaring a “softening” of his hardline immigration stance after a productive discussion with our closest neighbor to the south? Could this be the display of diplomacy and flexibility that shows anti-Trumpers and moderate Republicans that he is capable of being presidential? Now they can rally behind him and defeat Hillary Clinton in November!
Not so fast.
After clinching the nomination in June, Trump has struggled balancing his off-the-cuff, outsider style with reason and substantive policy proposals. One minute he was reading off a teleprompter talking about the issues facing the country, the next minute he was engaged in a Twitter war with Judge Curiel over Trump University.
Thus, what appeared to be a glimmer of hope after his conference with President Peña Nieto turned into a microcosm of the Trump general election campaign. A few short hours later Trump held a rally in Phoenix in his signature shouting, brash tone proclaiming, “Mexico is going to pay for the wall they just don’t know it yet,” despite an earlier tweet from Mexico’s president saying, “I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall.”
Trump also boasted “anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation,” eliminating any ambiguity for what he plans to do with roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. and solidifying the mass deportation force he championed in the primaries.
FiveThirtyEight and The New York Times have Hillary Clinton’s chances of becoming the next president at around 72 percent and 80 percent, respectively. While the trip to Mexico was a wise move by Trump, campaign insiders with the math stacked against them, it has now become clear, with only two short months until Nov. 8, there is no taming The Donald.
