Republican presidential candidate is expected to showcase a softer side.
“I will be making a major speech on ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION on Wednesday in the GREAT State of Arizona. Big crowds, looking for a larger venue,” Trump tweeted Sunday.
The Republican nominee is expected to propose a position more appealing to America’s immigrant community, in his speech. The speech was scheduled for last week but Trump’s campaign postponed it.
During primaries, the billionaire businessman avowed that he would knock every single house in the country to identify illegal immigrants and put them out of the country. However, as the Election Day is getting closer, he is posing a softer image: “I just want to follow the law . . . will work with them,” the Republican nominee said in an interview to the Fox news channel, a week ago. “We are going to obey the existing laws. Now, the existing laws are very strong. . .The first thing we are going to do, if and when I win, is we are going to get rid of all the bad ones,” he stressed.
For Trump campaign, however, this is no shift.
“He hasn’t changed his position on immigration. He’s changed the words that he is saying,” Katrina Pierson, National Spokesperson for Trump campaign, told CNN in an interview on Thursday. Adding, however, that the proposed wall at the border remains.
Republican vice presidential nominee iterated similar views. In an interview with the CNN, Mike Pence said, “His [Donald Trump] positions and his principles have been absolutely consistent. We are going to secure the border; we are going to build the wall; have a physical barrier; we are going to enforce the laws of this country and sanctuary cities; implement e-verify; and we will have a mechanism for dealing with people in this country, you heard the word, “humanely” again.”
The Indiana Governor explained that the toughness will continue. “It’s going to be fair. It’s going to be tough. But there’ll be no path to legalization, no path to citizenship unless people leave the country. He [Donald Trump] said that very consistently.”
In comparison, Pence said, Hillary Clinton supports amnesty, open borders, increase refugees from terrorist torn countries by 550%.
One reason for these flip-flops might be Democratic Party’s rising popularity and increased preference in presidential polls. Recently, all poll charts have been predicting victory for Clinton. And as the both campaigns race to the Election Day, the gap between Trump and Clinton is widening. So much so that the Republican nominee might find it impossible to diminish it, let alone overcoming the Democratic presidential nominee.