By Jordan Fabian and Jonathan Easley - 09-18-17 06:00 AM EDT
President Trump is betting that his base will give him wide latitude to pursue an immigration deal with Democrats despite the outburst of anger from prominent voices on the right.
Conservatives pundits like Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham denounced Trump's pursuit of an agreement as a betrayal. GOP Rep. Steve King (Iowa) warned the president risked fracturing his base.
But other prominent Trump supporters, including Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and the hosts of "Fox and Friends," gave him cover.
Limbaugh blamed the news media for peddling a false narrative about the president's dinner last week with Democratic leaders, where a plan to help young immigrants living illegally in the U.S. was discussed.
"They want you to think Trump has sold you out and thrown you under the bus," Limbaugh told his listenersThursday. "The media wants you to believe that Trump is acquiescing to the Democrat agenda just so he can do deals and just so there can be something done."
Many of the conservatives criticizing Trump were cheering him just a week earlier, when he followed through on his promise to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The Obama-era program shields hundreds of thousand of immigrants from deportation.
But the president appears to be having second thoughts, turning to Democratic leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to help him enshrine the program in law in exchange for enhanced border security measures. The tradeoff might not include Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The emerging alliance with Democrats on immigration is emerging as a test of whether Trump's personality or his policies are what put him over the top in last year's election.
Trump enjoys strong backing from his core supporters; 98 percent of Republicans who voted for him in the 2016 primary still support him, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
That support is unlikely to wane if Trump eventually signs legislation protecting young undocumented immigrants, several allies say.
"I think ultimately they stay with him," said a former campaign aide. "Ultimately, his base isn't predicated on repealing DACA. It's predicated on giving communities in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan a voice."
Trump's voters have stuck with him through controversies that could have ended the careers of other politicians, including his response to the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., and the "Access Hollywood" tape where he talked about his exploits with women.
But if Trump does go back on key campaign promises, it could present a different kind of challenge for him.
As a candidate, Trump energized his supporters with his pledges to scrap DACA, deport the roughly 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. and build a wall along the southern border to stop them from entering. Immigration, in short, was perhaps the biggest animating force of his candidacy.
King tweeted if reports of the president's dealing are correct, "Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible."
But the president expressed confidence Republicans would stick with him even if he helps DACA recipients, telling reporters Thursday many are "very, very happy with what we're doing."
The former campaign adviser endorsed Trump's view, saying his support is "not tied to a specific policy, it's tied to disrupting, it's tied to shaking up the status quo."
"That's what the base likes, bringing disruption to a city that has been mired in gridlock," the aide said.
On Friday, Trump tacitly acknowledged his newfound love for bipartisanship carries political risk.
The president rallied supporters with a string of tough-talking early morning tweets on the terror attack in London and an ESPN host who called him a white supremacist.
He also reassured his backers that, "CHAIN MIGRATION cannot be allowed to be part of any legislation on Immigration!" The term refers to the practice of immigrants with legal status sponsoring certain family members so that they can come to the U.S.
Yet some of Trump's allies continue to question why he seems to be prioritizing a top issue for Democrats, the status of undocumented immigrants, over his campaign promise to build a border wall.
By not demanding wall funding be attached to a DACA bill, Trump supporters say he is giving away his most valuable bargaining chip in exchange for vague promises of stronger border security from Schumer and Pelosi.
Trump once bragged that his supporters are so loyal, he could shoot someone in the street and they would let it slide. Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Trump's proposed DACA deal would put that notion to the test.
"Donald Trump would have been better off going onto Fifth Avenue and shooting someone," said Stein, whose group favors lower levels of both legal and illegal immigration. "He said his base wouldn't care if he did that. The base cares about this."
Stein speculated the president might be "convinced that dealing on DACA will win him new supporters" who could help him win in 2020.
The former campaign aide said Trump's supporters wouldn't have a better option in 2020, regardless of what he does on immigration.
"It's not 2016 Trump against 2020 Trump," the aide said. "It's Trump running against Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, and it's not like these voters would run to vote for the other side."
In the short term, conservatives' anger at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has provided a buffer for Trump against the backlash from his base.
Frustration with the GOP leaders gave Trump room to break with them and strike a deal with Democrats on a deal to extend the nation's borrowing limit and fund the government.
That dynamic could persist until Republicans begin notching legislative victories of their own.
"He has such a diverse coalition and his base elected him knowing that he isn't overly ideological," said a GOP consultant who requested anonymity. "Poll after poll shows that Republicans will blame Ryan and McConnell every single time, so he has leeway here."
But the consultant warned that cover might not last forever, because "it's never a good sign to have key influencers turn their backs."
Key figures on the right warn that immigration is a different animal from other policy areas.
Trump's tough talk on the issue was a major reason why the right rallied behind him in 2016 over GOP establishment figures like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
"He succeeded in the primary because of immigration," Stein said. "He would not have won the primary if he had taken a stance on DACA amnesty, Ted Cruz would have won. The base simply will not accept this."
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