http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/08/25/sarah-palin-warns-of-massive-disappointment-if-donald-trump-eases-immigration-policy/Sarah Palin Warns of ‘Massive Disappointment’ if Donald Trump Eases Immigration PolicyBy BETH REINHARD
Aug 25, 2016 10:06 pm ET
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, one of the first prominent Republicans to endorse Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign, warned Thursday of “massive disappointment” among the GOP nominee’s supporters if he continues to soften his immigration policies.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has shifted away from calling for mass deportation of illegal immigrants to suggesting some could stay if they paid back taxes..
“If Mr. Trump were to go down a path of wishy-washy positions taken on things that the core foundation of his support has so appreciated, and that is respecting our Constitution and respecting law and order in America, then yeah, there would be massive disappointment,” Mrs. Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president in 2008, said in a telephone interview with the Wall Street Journal. “Parts of that message we heard in the last week are clearly not consistent with the stringent position and message that supporters have received all along.”
At a Fox News town hall on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said “the bad ones” who came to the U.S. illegally have to leave, but he said the federal government could “work with” others with families who have lived here for years.
“The focus needs to be not on whether an illegal immigrant is a good person or a bad person but how sustainable it is to incentivize illegal immigrants to come over our borders,” Mrs. Palin said.
Mrs. Palin’s rebuke comes one week after Mr. Trump elevated pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager and installed Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen Bannnon as the chief executive of his campaign. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort subsequently resigned. Since the overhaul at the top, Mr. Trump has been relying more on teleprompters at his rallies, making direct appeals to black and Hispanic voters, and moderating his immigration policy.
Like Mr. Trump, Mrs. Palin positioned herself as an straight-shooting outsider waging battle against the political establishment during her national campaign
“What we appreciate about Trump is that he hasn’t been a politician, and I would hope the people around him are not influencing him to be a typical politician,” Mrs. Palin said. “As in all campaigns and administrations you have people who try to mold and meld and massage that candidate or that administrator to become something that they want, as opposed to what is in the core of that candidate or that administrator. That’s why the candidate or administrator has to have a backbone of steel.”
Mrs. Palin said she expects Mr. Trump to clarify his position, “leaving no doubt that he’s as strong against illegal immigration as he was to start with.”
