Calling the birthright provision of the 14th Amendment unconstitutional, 68-year-old real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump proved why he’s ahead in pre-primary national election polls. Showing the same kind of Teflon as GOP icon President Ronald Reagan, the public seems to forgive many of Trumps insults and non-sequiturs. Unlike Reagan who could be sharply critical of liberals, Trump doesn’t bite his tongue when it comes to violating Reagan’s 11th commandment about not attacking fellow Republicans. While Reagan was the master of politically correctness, Trump’s the opposite, lauded for his directness, abrasiveness and offensiveness. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is hard-pressed to explain Trump’s appeal to pre-primary voters, attracted to his flamboyant style and anti-immigrant message, preaching to the GOP’s extreme right wing.
Trump’s positions throw most conservative Fox News commentators for a loop, not sure how to handle his extreme positions. While Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly has been ranting on the porous U.S. border for years, he recognizes how Trump’s anti-immigrant message could undermine the GOP in 2016. Unsure how far the Trump bandwagon will go, Fox News President Roger Ailes threw Trump the olive branch after trying to sabotage him in the first Aug. 6 GOP debate. Trump’s dust-up with Fox News darling Megyn Kelley raised urgent issues for Ailes, wanting, on the one hand, to back his on-air talent, while, on the other hand, seeking Trump’s ratings for the conservative network. Appearing on O’Reilly’s “No Spin Zone” Aug. 18, Trump sounded off-the-wall calling the 14th Amendment unconstitutional. He told O’Reilly he knows attorneys that believe so-called “anchor-babies” are illegal
Being around hoards on attorneys in his real estate empire, Trump thinks there’s some kind of legal magic to reverse the “birthright” provision of the 14th Amendment. Just like the Supreme Court’s June 26 ruling to make same-sex marriage the law of the land, attorneys from conservative groups decry the ruling as “unconstitutional.” Once the High Court rules, it defines constitutional. “It’s not going to hold up in court,” Trump told O’Reilly about the legality of “anchor-babies.” Children “born or naturalized in the United States,” according to the 14th Amendment, are legal U.S. citizens. Trump’s non-sequiturs pander to the Fox News audience, ironically making O’Reilly look liberal on his own show. For the disgruntled shrinking white majority, Trump strikes a cord telling O’Reilly illegal immigrants are “destroying the country.” There’s enough retired or unemployed white guys to agree with Trump.
Trump advocates building a super-fence covering thousands of miles along the Mexican border and deporting an estimated 11-15 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. Trump wants to de-fund “sanctuary cities” and “mandatory return of all criminal aliens,” insisting that illegal immigrants must be deported. “We’re going to keep families together, but they have to go,” Trump told Chuck Todd Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” Capturing the angry white pre-primary vote, Trump’s poll number mirror the degree of frustration of prospective GOP voters. GOP’s past political stars like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin praise Trump for his position on illegal aliens. Running his various real estate businesses, it’s doubtful that all of Trump’s employees in the construction and maintenance trades have legal documentation, often providing employers fake visas and Social Security numbers.
Sounding more like Palin in 2008 while running as VP with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) when she insisted Obama was not born in America, Trump whips up the same kind of xenophobia against illegal Latino immigrants. “Our country is going to hell. We have to start a process, Bill, where we take back our country,” said Trump on O’Reilly’s show. When Trump talks of the country “going to hell,” he’s certainly not talking about the U.S. economy. Unlike the two terms of President George W. Bush, the Wall Street has enjoyed an unprecedented bull market under Obama, creating some 12 million jobs since the Great Recession bottomed out in April 2010. Suggesting that hard-working Latino laborers, illegal or otherwise, have done anything but help improve the U.S. economy is nonsense. Trump’s extreme position on illegal immigrants win him plaudits of Tea Party co-founder Mark Meckler, admitting Turmp’s current popularity comes from the Tea Party.
Telling the real story of where Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric winds up, McCain’s former running mate chimed in. “The immigration plan of his—especially the wall, that’s common sense—it’s a real shot in the arm to the constitutionalists and conservatives who want America to be put first,” said Palin, signaling, that Trump’s exactly on the wrong track. Picking Palin in 2008 proved to be McCain’s downfall. While still popular with the Fox News crowd, Palin represents the losing side of the Republican Party. “We’re rewarding those who would take illegal action. He wants to stop that and certainly send the message that America comes first,” said Palin, mirroring the same failed strategy that lost the GOP the 2008 election by a landslide. Trump’s current popularity mirrors precisely the same disgruntled white voters that accused Obama of being Kenyan or Muslim.
