Donald Trump this week revealed a major policy proposal on illegal immigration, an issue of great concern to Republican primary voters. It’s an issue which has long resisted political resolution, to the frustration of most Americans. Trump’s plan lays out three self-evident core principles: a nation without borders is not a nation; a nation without laws is not a nation; and a nation that does not serve its citizens is not a nation. Yet some of the plan’s key components — a wall along the Mexican border, paid for by the Mexicans; an end to birthright citizenship; and mass deportations of those in the country illegally and their children (including those who have been granted legal status by President’s Obama’s executive amnesty) — seem to many observers (myself included) to be unrealistic, unconstitutional, and unthinkable, in that order. Trump is many things, but stupid is not among them. So what’s going on?
My theory: Trump’s plan isn’t so much a position paper as it is an opening offer. Governor Chris Christie scolded Trump this week, telling CNN, “This is not the negotiation of a real estate deal, OK?” He’s right that the stakes are much higher, a point Trump would undoubtedly concede. What Christie misses is that Trump’s whole campaign is a negotiation — with his fellow candidates, with the Republican Party, with the American people — all aimed at closing the deal to “make American great again.” He’s frustrated by a political system that makes bad deals, or no deals at all. Aren’t we all?
Does Trump really want to order mass deportations of long-term residents who entered illegally, and their children who have legal status? I doubt it. But a good negotiator always asks for something he is willing to concede, and if nothing else, Trump is a good negotiator. Whether this master of the “art of the deal” will succeed remains to be seen. Remember, one of Trump’s most important rules of negotiating is “be prepared to walk away.”
1 comment
Mary Cannon (author of this article), I will be watching for more from you. You got it, you get it, and you have it. Your insight into what is going on is spot on. It may not even be conscious on Trumps part, because that is just who he is, and that is why he is so successful. This is the same reason he has not “pledged” to not run as a third party candidate, and he actually said it. It gives him leverage. As long as there is the threat that he could run as a 3rd party candidate, the republicans are forced to deal with him. If he promised not to do so, then he has problems. First, they could then totally trash him without fear of a split vote. Second, they could then use it as a “broken promise” if he did indeed later choose to run as a 3rd party candidate. As he himself stated, why give up that leverage? It is the art of the deal.
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