Trump Predicted His Own Defeat Four Years Ago

Jonathan Chait notes that Donald Trump told Fox News after Mitt Romney’s defeat that the Republican party needed to pass immigration reform or it might never win an election again.

“The narrow focus on immigration was always a simplistic one. The plan appealed to the party’s donor base, which was eager to maintain policies like huge tax cuts for the rich and loose regulations on Wall Street, which were also fat political targets. But Republicans were certainly correct that immigrant communities were unlikely to start voting for Republicans as long as they planned to deport their friends and relatives. Trump could happily repeat this analysis at the time because he cares about nothing except power, which he both craves and approves of in its bloodiest and most totalitarian applications. Trump would repeat the conventional wisdom of the Republican donor base and then turn around and insist upon the opposite without a second thought.”

“And now, of course, as Latino voting is surging in reaction to his racist attacks, the analysis he endorsed in December, 2012 appears to be the most accurate description of why he is likely to lose.”