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Cmon, nobody believes this. Next theyll be telling us Trump wants to preserve Obamas executive amnesty for DREAMers.

Maybe he meant to say no way to comprehensive immigration reform but was discombobulated because, for once, he wasnt even close to being the richest guy in the room.

Habermans right that this isnt the first time Trumps been accused of talking up comprehensive reform. In early February, just a few weeks after taking office, he met with a bipartisan group of senators. Joe Manchin reportedly asked him if hed consider a Gang-of-Eight style comprehensive bill that would trade security improvements for legalization. Sure, Ill take a look at it, Trump is said to have replied, which is no big deal. What was a big deal, sort of, was what he allegedly said when Manchin explained to him the sort of long-term path to citizenship (say, 10-13 years) that he had in mind: That doesnt sound like amnesty to me. Hmmmm.

Theres another private meeting which Habermans forgetting at which Trump supposedly suggested he was open to an immigration deal. That one came at the very end of February, when he sat down for lunch with news anchors on the day of his address to a joint session of Congress.

Trump didnt end up mentioning comprehensive reform in his speech. The White House tried to clean up what hed said to the anchors the next day by claiming that it was some sort of grand psych-out of the fake news media, but that never made sense. Assuming Haberman, whos famously well-sourced, is correct that he mentioned comprehensive reform to Cook, that makes three separate occasions on which hes discussed it. Is the White House actually considering this?

The likeliest explanation that Trump was pandering to a private audience, telling them what he thought they wanted to hear, while possibly not fully understanding exactly what comprehensive reform means. All three meetings I just described involved Democrats or presumptive Democrats, whom Trump would naturally assume to be pro-amnesty. None of the meetings was recorded, giving him plausible deniability about what was said. As such, his instinct may have been to ingratiate himself to the people around him by blowing smoke about a big amnesty deal knowing thered be no way to hold him accountable for what he said afterward. After all, whose word is a Trump fan going to trust, Trumps or Jake Tappers? It may also be that Trump likes the concept of a comprehensive deal itll be big, yuge, the comprehensivest! without grasping exactly what that means in an immigration context beyond a vague idea of compromise despite Manchins attempt to explain it. I sure hope he hasnt been suckered into believing that if the deal only legalizes illegals without granting them citizenship that thats somehow a win for border hawks. Citizenship for newly legalized residents is a fait accompli in time. Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller presumably know that even if Trump doesnt.

But hey, maybe he knows full well what hes saying and really is considering a grand bargain with Democrats on immigration. A path to citizenship for DREAMers in exchange for beefy internal enforcement mechanisms might be a deal worth doing. I doubt Schumer would do it as hed insist on a much broader amnesty, but theres no harm dangling the possibility through private remarks. Just explain to me how it fits with the White Houses dont piss off the base! strategy and its full speed ahead.

Go here to read the rest:
Report: Trump tells tech titans he favors comprehensive immigration reform - Hot Air