Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate comes despite some substantial differences between the two on key policy issues that has left Trump’s allies sputtering. Pence has held contrary positions to what Trump has espoused on trade, immigration and Muslim rights — three of the main issues in the candidate’s campaign.
“Withholding comment until it’s official, but if claims about Pence as VP are correct, boy was I right about this being Trump’s first mistake,” said conservative pundit Ann Coulter in tweet Thursday. In a follow-up she called Pence “the combo-platter of disaster.”
Trump has, for example, made waves this election cycle by calling for a ban on all Muslim immigration, a proposal that has been called outrageous by many. One of those critics was Pence.
“Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional,” Pence wrote in a December tweet.
Trump also has run an absolutist anti-immigration platform, calling for a massive wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border. Pence, by contrast, was the author of a 2006 effort to create a “real rational middle ground for dealing with the illegal immigrants currently in America.”
Pence’s vision, as outlined in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation that year, argued that most of the illegal immigrant population — he put the much-disputed figure at 12 million – would ultimately remain in the U.S. They would have to briefly return to their native countries but would then be allowed right back into the U.S. It was similar to the proposal made at the time by then-President George W. Bush and in 2012 by then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
“Outside of the United States is a key point; it is the provision that will require the 12 million illegal aliens to leave. Now, some of you are thinking to yourselves that 12 million people aren’t going to pack up and leave just to get a visa to come back legally. I believe most will,” Pence said.
He added that “the beauty of the program” is that the process would take “one week or less. Speed is so important. No employer in America wants to lose employees for an extend¬ed amount of time. No worker who is earning money to feed and clothe a family can afford to be off the job for long.”
Trump booster Mickey Kaus has called this a “disingenuous” scam since it would allow most illegal immigrants to be guaranteed they could stay in the country. In a Thursday tweet Kaus said it would result in “3 years of UNLIMITED guest worker immig.”
Trump has railed against free trade throughout his campaign, declaring that he not only opposes the current deals like the proposed 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership but would revisit earlier deals like the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement.
Pence has spoken glowingly of deals like TPP. In a 2014 tweet, he said: “Trade means jobs, but trade also means security. The time has come for all of us to urge the swift adoption of the Trans Pacific Partnership.”
