Donald Trump’s immigration speech: The same old tripe - By Jennifer Rubin

[DonViejo]

Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.

In Arizona on Wednesday night, Donald Trump proclaimed to his hardcore base what he did not have the nerve to say to Mexico’s president. He reverted to red meat and angry rhetoric on immigration. In that regard, he is a typical bully — brave only from a distance.

In Mexico earlier that afternoon Trump had said no discussion occurred about which country will pay for his wall. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said for his part “At the beginning of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made clear Mexico will not pay for the wall.” A Trump spokesman seemed to confirm Peña Nieto’s version when he put out a statement saying it should not be surprising the two disagreed. (Got that?)

Safely back in the U.S., it was Trump as usual. With intros from Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) who both sported hats reading “Make Mexico Great Again Also” (I kid you not) — Trump began with praise for the Mexican president, who had effectively called him out as a liar. Insisting we have record levels of immigration (we don’t), he suggested the immigrant system serves the needs of politicians(?). It was downhill from there. Trump insisted we would build a “great” wall along the southern border and get Mexico to pay for it. Of course, he’d first have to ask for it, something he claimed he did not do today.

He continued on, arguing some immigrants don’t want to assimilate. (Hmm, which immigrants could he have in mind?) He claimed many people would still be alive if not for the “open borders” (which we do not have) that Clinton favors (which she does not) and reverted to the stories of Americans killed by illegal immigrants.

He did not get more accurate as the speech went on: We could have 30 million immigrants, he insisted, and repeated another unfounded claim that illegal immigrants cost us $113 billion a year.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/08/31/donald-trumps-immigration-speech-the-same-old-tripe/?utm_term=.1e4e04f5eccf&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1