Trump hints at softer stance on immigration, angering some

WASHINGTON— Ann Coulter has just begun the promotional tour for her new book, In Trump We Trust, which contains this statement: “There’s nothing Trump can do that won’t be forgiven. Except change his immigration policies.”

The book came out Tuesday. By Wednesday, Coulter did not seem like a woman who trusted Donald Trump.

Trump, it had become clear, is thinking about changing his immigration policies.

The Republican presidential nominee has modified, abandoned or reversed a dizzying array of cam- paign pledges, but this particular shift would be a doozy to surpass them all. Trump, who won the Republican primary in significant part because of a promise to deport all 11 million of America’s illegal immigrants, is now musing publicly about allowing most of those people to stay.

Such a dramatic transformation would come with a potential upside but also a huge risk. In a last-ditch attempt to improve his dismal standing with Hispanics and moderate suburban whites, Trump may well lose part of the anti-immigration base that propelled him to the nomination.

“Trump probably just threw away his only remaining chance to win in November with Wednesday’s Jeb Bush impersonation,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, wrote in the National Review. “Many of the voters who stuck with him through his various antics will start drifting away.”

As usual with the mercurial candidate, caution is in order. He has not committed to any specific new policy, he has just launched a television ad warning of immigrant hordes and some liberals suspect he is merely making an attempt to appease moderates with meaningless August rhetoric while maintaining his hardline stance.