President Donald Trump is hedging on a border wall, he’s working to protect young, undocumented immigrants from deportation and he’s wheeling and dealing with Democratic leadership, threatening to betray core campaign promises in the process.
But according to the GOP base, this is all the fault of the Republican-controlled Congress.
“I don’t fault the president,” said Steve Scheffler, the Iowa Republican national committeeman. “The people I’m most disgusted with are these Republicans who pontificate, get themselves into self-righteous mode and want to do everything in their power to make sure the president doesn’t succeed. We’ve got to get something done.”
After meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, Trump and the Democratic leaders said they had discussed a path to shielding from deportation immigrants who were brought here illegally as children, part of a plan that would also include border security. Trump, who ran on pledges to build a wall on the southern border, called the structure “vital,” but also said Thursday that it will “come later.”
The idea of pushing the wall off while dealing with young undocumented immigrants—whom he suggested last summer shouldn’t be exempt from deportation—outraged some influential conservative voices. Significantly, Breitbart—now home, again, to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon—blared the headline ‘Amnesty Don’ Wednesday evening and kept up tough headlines into Thursday afternoon.
But grassroots leaders around the country remain far more comfortable criticizing Congress than criticizing Trump. And early Thursday, as they got up to speed with the rapidly changing dynamics surrounding Trump and immigration, that was their instinct.
“The Republicans have no one to blame but themselves if they’re now not happy with what he’s doing,” said Tom Carroll, a conservative activist in Pennsylvania. Moderates “keep yelling at conservatives, ‘you people need to get on board, realize you need to compromise, need to govern.’ What he’s saying is, I’m president of all the people.”
Even if he disagrees with how Trump approaches the immigration issue, Carroll said he has no plans to abandon the president.
“If we’re moving the ball down the field in the right direction, we’re not going to get a touchdown, win the game in the first eight, nine months of the administration,” he said. “There are going to be ties. We’ll think, ‘Why did they do that?’ That doesn’t mean, because I don’t agree with it, I’m going to abandon conservative principles or the thrust of the agenda passed. I’m not going to jump off the bandwagon, so to speak, and say I’m done with Trump. It’s not going to happen.”
Conservative activists have spent years railing against “amnesty,” using the term as a blanket barb against Republicans perceived as open to more centrist immigration policy. Very few other Republicans would get away from the base unscathed by pushing what Trump has embraced in the last 24 hours, said Doug Heye, who served as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican often bashed by the grassroots over immigration.
“If President Rubio, President [Jeb] Bush cuts this deal, the apparatuses that have sought to divide the party are crying wholesale surrender,” Heye said. “This is not and has never been about policy, this is about tribal politics and this is about personalities.”
Mimicking what he described as diehard Trump supporters, he continued: “’What’s he going to do? Stop illegal immigration! Build the wall! Kick everybody out! He doesn’t want to do that? That’s OK because he’s amazing. Being in love means never having to say you’re sorry.’”
Certainly, there are some very prominent voices that have consistently backed hardline immigration policy, and now appear critical of Trump’s immigration machinations. As news of a possible deal came out, commentator Laura Ingraham snarked on Twitter, “Exactly what@realDonaldTrump campaigned on. Not.”