A day after he delivered two very different messages about immigration to two very different audiences, Donald Trump admitted in an interview with conservative radio host and informal adviser Laura Ingraham that there has been a “softening” of his stance on the issue. “Where's the softening?” Ingraham asked Trump, following what she described as the “very specific, very pro-enforcement immigration plan” he laid out in Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday night.
“Oh, there’s softening,” Trump replied. “Look, we do it in a very humane way, and we’re going to see with the people in the country. Obviously I want to get the gang members out, the drug peddlers out. I want to get the drug dealers out. We’ve got a lot of people in this country that you can’t have, and those people we’ll get out. And then we’re going to make a decision at a later date once everything is stabilized. I think you’re going to see there’s really quite a bit of softening.” He did not address what would happen to the millions of non-violent, law-abiding undocumented immigrants currently living in the country.
Last week, in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, Trump insisted of his evolving message, “I don’t think it’s a softening.” In fact, he added, “I’ve had some people say it’s a hardening.”
