Donald Trump sustains his campaign on fear of immigration

Although Donald Trump continues to lie about who he says will pay for his "impenetrable" wall against Mexican immigrants, (Mexico said "no #f8735!-way"), he doesn't explain how he intends to pay for the massive border security he promised to include in this heinous policy.

Enrique Peña Nieto president of Mexico.

Clearly, Trump told Predident Peña Nieto one thing and his zealous followers in Phoenix AZ something else. No softening.

Moreover, it certainly flies in the face of who we are as Americans, as Donald Trump continues to soak up the political oxygen, precisely because he builds on unjustified fear of immigrants, with a particular focus on anti Muslim paranoia. 

Hypocrisy notwithstanding, this anti-immigration anxiety makes no sense.  Every single, bar none, American and our ancestors, are the products of immigration. Donald Trump's mother Mary Ann was a Scottish immigrant, not even sure she was naturalized at the time he was born.  In fact, Donald Trump's grandfather Friedrich and grandmother Elisabeth were born in Germany, and emigrated to the United States. Their son Fred Trump married Donald Trump's mother Mary Ann MacLeod, who was born in Scotland and met Donald Trump's father during a vacation trip to New York.

Yet, Donald Trump doubles down on his anti-immigration fueled campaigning, reported in "Controversy of the week" in The Week (September 16, 2016)


Trump can't soften bigotry, writes columnist Eugene Robinson.

"So much for the Trump 'pivot'", Robinson wrote, in The Washington Post. After Donald Trump's visit to Mexico on Wednesday, August 31st, where he did "his best to sound sober and statesmanlike" in a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, it looked as though Trump's promised "softening" on immigration had finally arrived.
Nevertheless, later that day, the old Trump resurfaced with a vengeance in Phoenix AZ. At a raucous rally for supporters, the GOP nominee reiterated his pledge that our southern border will be secured by an "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful" wall, while also promising to hire 5,000 new border patrol agents and create a "special deportation task force."

On "day one" of his presidency, Trump shouted, his administration will start deporting illegal immigrants who have committeed crimes in this country- a number "Trump wildly inflated to 2 million. Once these "criminal aliens" are gone, as well as an estimated 4.5 million who have outstayed their visas, Trump will apparently turn his attention to the remaining 6 million illegal immigrants, who may or may not be given a path to legalization.

Indeed, Trump's Phoenix speech sounded "threatening", said Rich Lowry in Politico.com, but "beneath the bombast", the Phoenix speech was substantive and sensible about immigration, something not heard previously from Trump. Border security and the deportation of criminal aliens makes a lot of sense, as does Trump's insistence that US immigration policy serve the interests of America and its workers, not the welfare of foreigners.  (Still missing is how to pay for such a draconian position. Maybe the border financials are buried in Trump's tax returns.)

Trump's earlier cruel promises, to deport all 11.5 million illegal immigrants were never more than fantasy, said Charles Krauthammer, in The Washington Post. 

(Excuse my honestly here, but since when does Charles Krauthammer give credibility to "fantasy"?)

Out of political necessity, Trump found his way to "the only immigration solution" that makes any sense: Secure the borders first, aggressively enforce current immigration law to get rid of the "bad guys" (however they may be defined), and only then offer legalization to those who meet our terms.

You're trying to make Trump sound reasonable, said Timothy Egan in NYTimes.com.  

Instead, his Phoenix speech was actually on the "the darkest visions of the American experience that any major party nominee has ever given."  Trump not only denegrated and threatened the "lawn cutters, sheetrock hangers, fruit pickers, or nannies we see in every community," he called for cutting back on legal immigration, admitting only those who meet his standards for "merit, skill and proficiency."

In fact, that policy would have ruled out most of the Irish, Italian, Scandinavian, and Jewish immigrants who came to the US (even ruled out, probably, his own mother Mary Anne!), over the last 150 years, out of desperation andhope for a better life. During his trip to Mexico, Donald Trump proved he's "a coward", said Peter Beinart, in TheAtlantic.com. What kind of straight talking tough guy calls Mexicans "terrific" and showers them with compliments, when he's within their borders, then breaks out the harsh rhetoric the minute he's safely back inside the US?

Frighteningly, that's the behavior of a candidate with "a fatal flaw", said John Fund in NationalReview.com. When Donald Trump first announced he was "softening" his harsh immigration stance and flew to Mexico to meet with Peña Nieto, it made Democrats very nervous. Would he finally give wavering Republican-leaning centrist voters the assurances they need to take a chance on Trump? But, then, at the rally in Arizona, Trump couldn't help but throw 'red meat' to his angry, roaring acolytes (those basket of deplorables). With a golden opportunity to show he can be presidential, Donald Trump decided he'd rather look tough and strong, which he thinks means belligerent and bigoted.

"If Donald Trump loses in November, it will be because he simply lacks the self-discipline to reach voters beyond his base."

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to get away with spewing chaotic public policy while the media struggles to keep up with holding him accountability for his lies.