KELLY: Mr. Trump, your campaign website to this day argues that more visas for highly skilled workers would, quote, “decimate American workers”. However, at the CNBC debate, you spoke enthusiastically in favor of these visas. So, which is it? TRUMP: I’m changing. I’m changing. We need highly skilled people in this country, and if we can’t do it, we’ll get them in. But, and we do need in Silicon Valley, we absolutely have to have. So, we do need highly skilled, and one of the biggest problems we have is people go to the best colleges. They’ll go to Harvard, they’ll go to Stanford, they’ll go to Wharton, as soon as they’re finished they’ll get shoved out. They want to stay in this country. They want to stay here desperately, they’re not able to stay here. For that purpose, we absolutely have to be able to keep the brain power in this country. KELLY: So you abandoning the position on your website… TRUMP: … I’m changing it, and I’m softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country.
After flip-flopping on this specific issue, Fox’s Megyn Kelly pressed him about the reports that he told the New York Times off the record that he’s much softer on immigration than his public rhetoric. Trump responded by touting his “flexibility” on the issues as an asset.
“You have to be able to have some flexibility, some negotiation,” he said. “Now, sometimes you ask for more than you want and you negotiate down to the point. I may have discussed something like that with the New York Times.”
However, immediately after the debate, Trump’s campaign issued a statement completely walking back what he said on the debate stage about H-1B visas:
Megyn Kelly asked about highly-skilled immigration. The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions.
Nonetheless, much of the media coverage last night and today is reporting Trump “softens on immigration,” when in fact, that’s not the case. What does appear to be true is that when confronted, Donald Trump’s “flexibility” means he will say absolutely anything if he thinks it will help him get elected.
