The House GOP’s staunchest opponent of illegal immigration said President Trump is now at risk of losing his base of supporters after supposedly cutting a deal to legalize more than 800,000 young people who arrived in the United States illegally as children.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said he stands by a Wednesday night tweet that proclaimed Trump’s base “is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair,” after he dined with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The two Democrats left the White House proclaiming they had reached a deal with Trump on the so-called Dreamers that would legalize them and even provide a pathway to citizenship, otherwise known as “amnesty” to opponents like King.
“If they see amnesty coming out of the White House, that is the one thing that will crack his base,” King said Thursday. “They are loyal Trump supporters but the most important plank in that platform is the rule of law. If that is blown up here in their negotiations, whether it is his intention or not, they are not going to have a leg to stand on when they press others to defend our president.”
Democrats say Trump agreed to deal to legalize the Dreamers and Pelosi added later that Trump supports an eventual “earned path” to citizenship for those eligible for the program.
Trump said he wants a deal to protect the dreamers that also includes significant border security.
King said the terms of the deal run against President Trump’s immigration platform, which was formulated in Iowa, beginning at the Iowa Freedom Summit held in January 2015, where Trump addressed attendees. It took place before he declared he was running for president.
“Much of this immigration policy was hammered out in Iowa and subsequently in New Hampshire and South Carolina,” King said, referring to the early primary and caucus contests. “A lot of the planks of this platform are planks we put together in the heart of the heartland. That is now in the Oval Office.”
King said Trump’s early supporters, “came on board because of ‘build the wall,'” which was Trump’s promise at nearly ever campaign stop, as well as Trump’s pledge to enforce immigration law and increase border security.
And, King said, “No amnesty, ever.”
