Soon after Trump’s announcement speech, I said he would win the
nomination and likely the election. It wasn’t that hard to predict. For anyone
familiar with the Republican Party’s repeated betrayals of the American people,
it was a 2-foot putt.
I issue this warning with the same certitude — in fact, for the
exact same reason I knew anyone running on Trump’s platform would have
unbreakable support from millions of voters.
What coalesced Trump’s base, what made his support tempered steel,
was the fact that voters had been lied to, over and over again — on many
things, but most smugly and repeatedly on immigration.
That is the beating heart of the anger that voters felt toward the
party. No one trusted Republicans to ever score when they had the ball.
It’s why Trump’s supporters stuck with him through thick and thin
— his attack on war hero John McCain (he deserved it), his mocking a disabled
reporter (a lie), his lazy first debate performance (totally true) and the
“Access Hollywood” tape (oh well).
After he gave that Mexican rapists speech, and never backed down,
Trump’s base would have brushed off six more “Access Hollywood” tapes. All
because they think Trump will take the shot.
He’d better! As the popular vote proves, we don’t have 30 seconds
on the clock. It’s only three.
But if he breaks a major campaign promise, his supporters will
turn on him with a blind ferocity, dwarfing their rage toward Jeb! because
Trump’s is the more exquisite con. He will have duped them. And he will never,
ever, ever get them back.
Most of his promises can be kept with little trouble: He will
appoint good judges, cut regulations, replace Obamacare and renegotiate trade
deals. In other words, he’ll do all the things any Republican president would
do — plus the trade deals.
But the moment Trump attempts to make good on his central promise
— to remove troublesome immigrants and give us our country back — every major
institution in America will declare war on him.
Trump knows that. In his Phoenix immigration speech, he said: “To
all the politicians, donors and special interests, hear these words from me and
all of you today. There is only one core issue in the immigration debate, and
that issue is the well-being of the American people.”
If powerful interests were not furiously opposed to Trump’s idea
that immigration should benefit Americans, rather than foreigners, our
immigration policies would already do so.
It will
surprise consumers of American media to learn this, but every promise Trump
made on immigration is already the law. Why? Because
politicians know that’s what the public wants. So they pass the laws — and then
refuse to enforce them.
But if Trump doesn’t appoint the sort of people capable of
fulfilling his campaign promises on immigration, he will fail. He’ll be just
another lying politician, and his supporters will watch in horror as rapists,
terrorists and drug dealers continue living in our country.
There will be no one person to blame. No one is ever to blame in
Washington. They just won’t get it done.
Then, well into the Trump presidency, some Muslim will commit a
machete attack, shoot up a community center, stage a mass slaughter at a gay
nightclub or bomb a marathon. There’s no question but that the terrorist
attacks won’t stop — unless Trump nominates people who know what needs to be
done and aren’t intimidated by testy New York Times editorials.
There will be more Americans like Kate Steinle, Grant Ronnebeck
and Joshua Wilkerson killed by illegal aliens. There will be more children
addicted to heroin brought in by Mexican drug cartels. There will be more
parents joining the Remembrance Project.
But this time, they’ll blame Trump.
And then it will be Trump’s opponents saying, “What is wrong with
our politicians, our leaders — if we can call them that. What the hell are we
doing?”
If Trump
betrays voters on immigration, he can have as many rallies as he wants, but
Americans will say, Been there, done that — you screwed us.He
will never escape the stink of broken campaign promises.
So unless Trump has another 60 million voters hiding someplace,
the appointments he makes today — to State, Defense, Homeland Security, Labor,
even the IRS — will determine whether he is remembered as America’s greatest
president, or if the Trump name becomes a cautionary tale in American politics.
At this precise moment — not after his inauguration, not in year
two of his administration, but today, as he fills his Cabinet — Trump has to
decide if he’s going to be like every other Republican and throw a brick or
grab the ball and score.
Whether he’s listening or not, his supporters are screaming:
TRUMP! NOW! TAKE THE SHOT!!!