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A cigar-chomping LeMay, more than anyone, destroyed imperial Japanese industry and created an effective Cold War deterrent. He ended up caricatured as a nut in the film Dr. Strangelove.

So too, perhaps, Donald Trump. Quietly, many Americans knew that unchecked illegal immigration was undermining the melting pot and eroding the idea of legal immigration.

Some feared it was a matter of when, rather than if, communist China would rule the world. Many people were tired of endless wars in the Middle East, even as America kept getting sucked into them.

Republicans knew that an originalist court was necessary to save the Constitution, but Republican presidents nonetheless often nominated future liberal justices.

Conservatives hammered away at the principle that late-term abortion was wrong but feared that taking on Planned Parenthood was suicidal.

Republicans rightly suspected that they were being typecast as a party of aristocratic golfers but were scared of the changes needed to appeal to the working classes, both black and white. They found the old Reagan Democrats, Ross Perot voters, blue dogs and tea partiers occasionally useful but felt that addressing their grievances would be worse than losing.

So in 2016 the peasants sought outside deliverance and so it cameorange skin, dyed hair, Queens accent and all.

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COMMENTARY: Will Trump ride off into the sunset? - starexponent.com

The immortal words of poet Emma Lazarus, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses inscribed near the Statue of Liberty seem rather empty today in view of President Trumps anti-immigrant stance. We Americans have generally accepted immigrants, but with reservations.

Historically we have encouraged immigrants mostly when we needed them, and often grudgingly even then. British and Germans to farm the Midwestern frontier, Irish for low-skilled construction jobs, to clean the houses of the wealthy and to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War, Scots-Irish to settle the southeastern frontier, Scandinavians to farm the more northern and colder states, Italians and eastern Europeans to mine the coal and iron ore and work the steel mills of Pennsylvania, Jews for the garment industry, and Chinese to build the western railroads. I didnt mention Africans to work the southern plantations since they werent exactly immigrants in the true sense of the word.

Throughout our history we have tended to favor immigrants who look, talk and worship like the original American settlers: more British and German Protestants and less Irish, southern European and Latin American Catholics or Asians. During the mid-nineteenth century Irish immigration was even rumored to have been a conspiracy by the pope to Catholicize America. Sound far-fetched? Google up The American Know-Nothing Party and see for yourselves.

By the third generation immigrants have usually become less bound to the old countries and cultures and more Americanized. And by then they are usually accepted as real Americans. But this is rarely the case in Europe and is probably the cause of much of the current ethnic unrest there. But American feelings toward recent immigrants are not always welcoming either and Trump has been playing that for all it is worth politically.

Trump was right in saying most illegal drugs come into the U.S. through Mexico. But he failed to add that they do not enter by the same route as immigrants. Most drugs are ingeniously concealed in legal shipments aboard tractor-trailer rigs or hidden away in passenger automobiles. Just ask yourselves, would drug dealers entrust their valuable cargos to poor people fleeing hunger and poverty?

Trump claims high violent crime rates for the immigrants crossing our southern borders. But immigration records show that relatively few illegal border crossers have criminal records back home. And once they get here their crime rates are less than half those of native-born Caucasians. These statistics are based on FBI arrest and incarceration data for California and Texas, the states with the highest non-white immigrant populations.

Although it would be presumptive to suggest a causal relationship here, between 1990 and 2013 the U. S. foreign-born population grew from 7.9 percent to 13.1 percent, a 65 percent increase. At the same time the number of illegal immigrants more than tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million. But during this same period FBI records indicate that the U.S. violent crime rate declined by 48 percent and property crime by 41 percent. Does this mean that to further lower our crime rate maybe we should adopt a policy of open borders as our president falsely accuses the Democrats of favoring? That would certainly fit in with some of his other convoluted thinking.

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George B. Reed Jr.: A nation of immigrants? - Northwest Georgia News

Murtaugh also repeated that claim later in the interview with host John Berman.

You have to locate the parents and when they are located in these other countries in many cases, John, the parents do not want the children sent back to them in their home countries.

DHS spokesman Chase Jennings said that the agency has taken every step to facilitate reunification of these families where the parents wanted such reunification to occur.

The simple fact is this: after contact has been made with the parents to reunited them with their children, many parents have refused, Jennings said in a statement.

However the preference of the parents of the hundreds of children at issue is unknown, as they have not yet been successfully contacted by the court-appointed steering committee tasked with the effort.

Migrants from Central America surged to the U.S. border during Trump's administration, as they fled gang violence and other problems that persist in their home countries and put parents who have been sent back in the position of leaving their kids in the care of the U.S. government or having them returned to the dangerous situations they sought to leave.

President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden sparred over immigration during Thursday nights debate in Nashville, Tenn., including the plight of the 545 children who remain separated from their parents as a result of the Trump administration's efforts to deter illegal immigration.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participates in the final presidential debate against U.S. President Donald Trump at Belmont University on October 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Biden was visibly angry when the subject came up during the debate and said its criminal these children have been left in limbo.

Parents were ripped their kids were ripped from their arms and separated, and now they cannot find over 500 of sets of those parents and those kids are alone, Biden said. [With] nowhere to go. Nowhere to go.

Trump countered by criticizing the Obama administrations immigration policy, including the construction of detention facilities for undocumented immigrants, and repeatedly pressing Biden to answer Who made the cages?

Trump also defended his administrations treatment of child migrants, saying they are so well taken care of.

Biden distanced himself from the president he served under, saying Barack Obama made a mistake for how he handled deporations and family detentions during his tenure.

We made a mistake. It took too long to get it right, Biden said during the debate.

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Trump campaign spokesperson says parents of separated children don't want them back - POLITICO

WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump swept into office nearly four years ago as an outsider who promised to get things done quickly on behalf of the American people through sheer force of will and unrivaled knowledge about the art of the deal.

He has checked off some items on his to-do list.

Trump pushed through the most significant overhaul of the U.S. tax system since President Ronald Reagan. Trump, as he said he would, tilted the Supreme Court further to the right with confirmation of two conservative justices and likely a third, Amy Coney Barrett, in the coming days. His promise to get tough on illegal immigration has resulted in a surge in migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border.

But Trump has also faced the same hard truth that each of his White House predecessors learned: Governing is rarely easy.

A look at some of the presidents unfinished business as he asks voters for a second term in the White House:

HEALTH CARE

Trump has managed to undermine President Barack Obamas health care law, but has fallen far short of his promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

His administration has managed to dismantle parts of the law. Enrollment periods have been shortened, some subsidies were ended and the individual mandate -- the fine for people without health insurance -- has been eliminated.

Trump says hes still focused on replacing the with something much better and much less expensive. He said in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes that it will be so good if the Supreme Court puts an end to Obamacare when the justices hear challenges to it next month.

The number of uninsured Americans has risen under Trumps watch. According to Census Bureau data released last month, nearly 30 million people in the U.S. lacked coverage at some point during 2019, about 1 million more than in the previous year.

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ENDLESS WARS

Trump has made only modest progress toward meeting his 2016 pledge to bring home all troops from what he calls Americas endless wars.

When Trump took over the White House, the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan stood at about 8,400, and there were about 6,800 troops in Iraq.

Within a year, the number of troops in Afghanistan climbed to about 15,000. Trump approved commanders requests for additional troops to reverse setbacks in the training of Afghan forces, fight an increasingly dangerous Islamic State group and put enough pressure on the Taliban to force it to the peace table.

In February, the U.S. and the Taliban signed an agreement that calls for the eventual complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

With an eye toward the election, Trump has accelerated his push to bring troops home, teasing that all U.S. troops could be out of Afghanistan by the end of the year.

Pentagon officials said the number of troops in Afghanistan will drop to 4,500 in November. But defense officials insist there are no plans to have all troops home from Afghanistan by the end of the year. U.S. officials also say there currently is no approved plan to reduce the number to 2,500 by early next year. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In Iraq, the number of U.S. troops has dipped from about 5,000 to roughly 3,000, although officials say the number fluctuates higher as units rotate in and out.

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THE WALL

During his 2016 primary run, Trump sought to mark his ground as a hard-line immigration enforcer who would build a great, great wall on our southern border.

And I will make Mexico pay for that wall, Trump said as he launched his run for the White House in June 2015. Mark my words.

Nearly four years later, Trump still has work to do completing his wall and much that has been completed has been paid by U.S. taxpayers despite promises otherwise.

The presidents administration has promised to build 450 miles by the end of this year and has so far built 371. Trump has replaced hundreds of miles of old, worn-out barriers, meant only to stop cars, with tall, 30-foot fencing that is much harder to get over and impedes wildlife from crossing the border. Conservationists in Arizona, where a bulk of the building has taken place, say the new wall is detrimental to wildlife and the surrounding ecosystems.

Mexico has steadfastly refused to pay for the border wall, though Trump earlier this year suggested that the wall is being paid, in part, by remittances from Mexican immigrants working in the U.S.

To date, the money is coming from the U.S. Treasury, meaning todays taxpayers and the future ones who will inherit the federal debt. To the extent any people who came into the U.S. illegally are kicking in for the wall, its because theyre working and paying taxes like other workers.

Trump also freed up $3.6 billion for the wall last year by diverting money from military construction projects as well as $2.5 billion from approved counterdrug spending.

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MIDEAST PEACE

Early in his presidency, Trump expressed confidence that his administration could broker a long-term peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. We will get it done, Trump declared in May 2017. He put his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner in charge.

Trump moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a step that was cheered by Israelis and the presidents evangelical Christian supporters in the U.S. but angered Palestinian leaders. He scored a big win in recent weeks with the U.S. nudging Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates three Arab states to normalize relations with Israel.

The normalization of relations between Israel and the three Arab nations is certainly an important achievement. But the agreements between nations that have never been in direct conflict dont meaningfully move the ball in achieving the large and long elusive goal of achieving peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

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INFRASTRUCTURE

The White Houses multiple attempts to designate an infrastructure week each effort quickly eclipsed by other issues have become something of a running punchline in the administration.

In his 2016 victory speech, Trump said he would rebuild the nations highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools and hospitals, making American infrastructure second to none and putting millions to work in the process.

Nearly four years later, Trumps soaring rhetoric has failed to produce legislation.

In April 2019, Trump reached an agreement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to pursue a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. This March, he resurrected the idea for a VERY BIG & BOLD plan for infrastructure spending to help jolt the staggering economy after the coronavirus pandemic hit.

While Pelosi and Schumer again threw their support behind big infrastructure spending, Senate Republicans have bristled at deficit spending, and Trumps sales pitch has gone nowhere with his own party.

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TRUMPS TAXES

On the debate stage four year ago, Trump said his federal income taxes were under a routine audit but promised they would be released as soon as the IRS finished.

Four years later, Trump says the IRS still hasnt completed its work, and the president has yet to fulfill his promise to release his tax returns. No law prevents Trump from making his tax filings public while under audit.

Questions about Trumps tax returns and his broader financial situation have only grown following revelations that he is personally liable for more than $400 million in debt. That sort of debt load, ethics experts say, raises concerns he could be manipulated to sway U.S. policy by those to whom hes indebted.

The New York Times reported last month that Trumps debt includes more than $300 million in loans that will come due in the next four years.

Trump dismisses his debt load as a peanut compared with his assets.

The president is the only post-Watergate president not to release his tax returns.

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Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Hope Yen, Calvin Woodward and Astrid Galvan contributed to this report.

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Four years in, Trump has plenty of unfinished business - The Associated Press

President Donald Trump went on the attack again and former Vice President Joe Biden fought back hard in Thursday nights final presidential campaign debate, moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News.

With the November 3 election less than two weeks away, stakes were high for the event organized by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates and telecast live from Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

We asked three BU faculty experts to assess the candidates debate performances:

Each watched the debate and emailed their answers immediately afterward.

with Michelle Amazeen, Craig Andrade, and Rachel Meade

Amazeen: The candidates have competing visions of reality: Trump based on fantabulous storytelling and Biden based more on seeming pragmatism and checkable facts. I imagine the fact-checkers are extremely busy right now.

Andrade: The president continued a strategy of bullying, deflection, and hyperbole. Vice President Biden had difficulty breaking through and seemed unable to effectively explain clearly what a Biden administration would look like.

Meade: Trump seemed finally to be attempting to return to his 2016 populist messaging, but its probably too little, too late. In 2016, he presented himself as someone who knew all the corruption because as a businessperson he was benefiting from it, and thus was the one to know how to fix it. He called back to this appeal when he said, You are the one who takes all the money from Wall Street, calling attention to Bidens large base of Wall Street donors. Trump followed up by saying that he could call up Wall Street guys himself, but he wouldnt want to be put in that position. Biden on the other hand, while forceful on certain progressive issues like the minimum wage and the need for a stimulus bill, continued to distance himself from the populist left of the party.

Amazeen: The muting contributed to a much more viewable debate. Trevor Noah predicted that Trump would get around the muting by shouting and even walking over to Bidens mic, perhaps even licking the mic, toothankfully, that didnt transpire. Trump was fairly uninterruptive for the first two-thirds of the debate, but he started to lose his composure and interrupt more in the last third of the debate, talking over the moderator.

Andrade: It simply stopped President Trump from the interruptions that occurred in the previous debate. It also helped both candidates address specific questions focused on policy. Unfortunately, in response to each question truth-talking was hard to find.

Meade: The muting seemed to really help with the overall feel of the debate, and its effects appeared to carry into the rest of the debate. But the more substantive feel is also owing to the really excellent job that the moderator, Kristin Welker, did. Unlike Chris Wallace, she seemed able to maintain control and keep her cool even when candidates continued talking over time, and in contrast to the vice-presidential moderator (USA Todays Susan Page), she asked a lot of follow-up questions.

Amazeen: This debate was more about how each candidate explained the current state of the country. While Biden shared specific anecdotes and many statistics about the state of the world and his policy plans, Trump showed he continues to be a masterful propagandist. He spoke at turns in glittering generalities or bleak predictions that selectively used evidence to support his position. For instance, Trump repeatedly claimed that Biden said he would ban fracking. But Biden pushed back, clarifying that he said he would not allow fracking on federal land, but otherwise would not ban it. But as it turns out, Biden wasnt entirely accurate on this claim, either.

Andrade: The previous interrupts were curbed due to the monitoring of the microphone. Trumps interruptions ramped up later in the debate. Most of those interruptions allowed President Trump to stoke fear with words such as illegal immigrantsa murderer comes in, a rapist comes inthose with the lowest IQ, socialized medicine, theyll destroy your Medicaid.

Meade: Yes, Trump was fairly effective in getting across his message this time. Perhaps some combination of the moderators seemingly even-handed approach and the muting contributed to a more controlled performance from him. At one point he actually said that he appreciated how the moderator was handling things, a moment I found quite surprising. Ill be curious to see if from the perspective of Trumps supporters, the moderation appeared more fair to them than at previous debates.

Amazeen: It seemed as if Trump had Biden in a gotcha moment when Biden admitted he would transition away from the oil industry and stop subsidizing it. But Biden seemed to provide a justification for his position.

Andrade: President Trump consistently responded with falsehoods and exaggeration on the environment, healthcare, racism, the economy, and foreign affairs, unchecked. That may have turned some voters off and made Biden appear more attractive.

Meade: I dont think so, though I was initially concerned about Joe Bidens comments on school reopenings, framed around Boston Public Schools recent decision to move virtual. After noting that funding and PPE are needed to make schools safe, he said: Not that many of you are going to die. Come on. At the time, I didnt realize this was an attempt to mock Trumps earlier stated position on teachers not being easily infected, and, judging from reactions on Twitter, it seems I wasnt the only one who missed the joke.

Amazeen: Voters have a choice between a fantabulous storyteller in Trump or an empathetic pragmatist in Biden. While great storytellers can be very compelling, the devils in those pesky detailsor lack of them.

Andrade: No.

Meade: Its not really a new insight, but I was struck once again by how difficult it is for Trump to not make issues into personal referendums on himself. It was particularly jarring in the race segmentwhere the opening question explicitly asked for candidates to speak to Black parents who worry about their childrento hear Trump making claims that he is the most antiracist person in the room or is the president that had done the most for Black people since Abe Lincoln, which Biden later turned into a pretty effective joke.

Amazeen: There are very few persuadable voters left. Biden embraced empathyoften talking directly to the people at homeand pragmatism; Trump continued to embrace conspiracy theories. I suspect both campaigns are happy with each candidates performance.

Andrade: The performance of both candidates was consistent with their strategy and messages maintained throughout the campaign. Trump continued to work to paint a rosy picture of his administrations performance, including on his management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden focused on bringing the country together, bringing the pandemic under control, addressing climate change, expanding healthcare, and addressing systemic racism. Ultimately, neither candidate moved the needle. I dont believe Trump gained any new votes. Biden looked more presidential and more compassionate. He lost no ground.

Meade: Possibly this could help Trump a little bit, simply because he did so much better than last time. But ultimately, I think its probably too late to see a big shift from this for his campaign, which is also running out of money right now. Biden performed similarly to how he usually does, and probably also better than last time, in part owing to the more effective debate setup and moderation, but I dont think it changes anything for him either.

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Trump, Biden Clash on Immigration, COVID and Abe Lincoln - BU Today