The thinking behind President Trump’s decision over the weekend to deploy the National Guard and U.S. Marines to restore order in Los Angeles is exactly why he won last year’s election – and exactly why he will continue to hold the approval of a majority of the public when it comes to immigration policy.
By contrast, the thinking behind Democrats’ decision to oppose Trump on the issue – in a manner which seems to have these Democrats supporting the use of violence against federal law enforcement authorities – will have them stuck in a minority position for some time to come.
It’s been seven months since Trump’s decisive victory. Have Democrats still learned nothing?
The polls make it clear: On the issue of immigration, the American public approves of the job President Trump is doing.
A CBS News/YouGov poll of 2,428 U.S. adults fielded between June 4-6 – that is, even before the weekend’s scenes of violence in Los Angeles (which are virtually guaranteed to improve President Trump’s poll numbers even higher) – with a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percent, tells the tale: By a margin of 54 percent - 46 percent, a majority approves of the Trump administration’s program to deport immigrants illegally in the United States. And by an even larger 42 percent - 30 percent margin, more people believe President Trump’s deportation program is making people in the United States safer than believe it is making people less safe.
Further, by a margin of 53 percent - 47 percent, survey respondents believe the Trump administration is prioritizing the deportation of dangerous criminals.
As CNN’s Harry Enten pointed out, this trend is found in several recent polls, including the poll from CBS News/YouGov, but also including recent polls from CNN and Ipsos.
“The American electorate believes that the Democrats don’t have a clue on the issue of immigration,” he said on Sunday, pointing to a chart with recent polling data, which showed that, asked if they feel closer to/which party they trust more on immigration, a CBS poll says the GOP advantage over the Democrats is +6, a CNN poll says the GOP advantage is +6, and an Ipsos poll says the GOP advantage is +19.
“No matter what poll you look at,” Enten summarized, “no matter which way you cut it, the American public is with the Republicans, the American public is with Donald Trump, and to a much greater extent than they were in term number one. And it’s not just on the broad issue of immigration, it’s on the specifics, as well.”
The most important of the “specifics” is simple – people want to feel safe. And when they feel as if their country is being overrun, as it was during the four years of the Biden presidency, they cannot help but feel less safe than they did when the border was secure.
President Trump knows this. He knows in his gut that Americans want to feel safe, and that’s why he’s prioritized the issue for his administration.
That’s why it didn’t take him long to make the decision to act when he saw the scenes of violence in Los Angeles.
When he learned that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom were refusing to allow the police forces under their control to provide security for federal law enforcement authorities trying to execute federal immigration law by detaining illegal immigrants at various points throughout the nation’s second-most-populous city, he followed in the footsteps of previous presidents like John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, each of whom deployed the military forces of the federal government to assist in the enforcement of federal law in Mississippi and Alabama, respectively.
Newsom’s response to Trump’s federalization of the California National Guard and deployment of Marines from Twentynine Palms was so typically lame – he filed a lawsuit. Trump, too, responded typically – he doubled the deployment of National Guard troops, ordering the Department of Defense to send an additional 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles on top of the 2,000 he had originally ordered over the weekend.
In the midst of a burning city, the Democrats sent in the lawyers. President Trump sent in the National Guard and the Marines. One can almost see him smiling as he hummed to himself, “Who ya gonna call?”
The visual alone offers a fitting contrast – on the one hand, a briefcase-toting lawyer, ready to do battle on behalf of illegal aliens who have overrun a major American city, and on the other hand, a riot-gear-clad soldier, ready to do battle against the illegal aliens who have overrun a major American city.
It’s really no wonder Trump and the GOP are beating the Democrats, and will continue to beat the Democrats, on the issue of immigration, is it?
Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.