Trump's Base, New Poll Reject Trump's Amnesty Dangle

President Donald Trump’s base supporters and a new poll reject his 60 Minutes suggestion of an amnesty for illegal migrants, even as Fox News steps up its pressure for a giveaway bill. “This would be a complete and total betrayal to his own movement and to the country,” said Nalin Haley, the son of global GOP politician Nikki Haley. “This notion that because an illegal has evaded the law for 15 years they get some kind of a pass or a gold star is utterly ridiculous,” said streamer Tami Lehren. “They are still: Driving down American wages Taking American jobs Sending their money to their country,” she added. “Hearing this hurts worse than losing the midterms,” said Trump supporter Randy Westlund, the mayor of Post Falls, which is Idaho’s second-largest city. Trump’s greatest weakness has always been that he wants to be liked, especially by powerful people. And we know what all of them are telling him. We need someone who’s willing to be hated by the elite, who would actually go to war with the establishment on behalf of the people. Someone willing to do the right thing without caring what the history books will say. … You don’t actually have to kowtow to the establishment to win an election. Candidates for 2028, take note! A new poll of 875 registered voters reported that 78 percent of U.S. voters want Trump to deport the huge population of illegal migrants who have committed a crime. That population includes nearly all illegal migrants who commit crimes after they enter the United States, including identity theft, document fraud, and tax evasion. However, the poll pushed respondents to endorse an amnesty by asking if they want to deport “immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but who otherwise have not committed a crime.” Forty-eight percent still endorsed mass deportations, while 41 percent said they “strongly [or] somewhat” oppose deporting the supposedly law-abiding illegal migrants. Seventy-eight percent of Republican men, and 66 percent of Republican women, want to deport the “otherwise have not committed a crime” illegals, the report said. The swift and comprehensive rebuke was prompted by Sunday night’s 60 Minutes show. “I’d love to do something about immigration,” Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes, as he sketched an amnesty deal with pro-migration Democrats: Get the killers out. Get all the rough ones out. Get the drug dealers out. But let the people that are here, and in some cases here for ten and 15 years, work a deal for them. if they’re good people working in a landscaping company, or workin’ in a hotel, or doing something … When you go into a hotel and you have a woman that’s worked there, you know, as a maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a that, as a waitress, a lotta good things, great jobs, and all of a sudden, they’re being taken outta the country, it’s tough There are multiple reasons to see Trump’s dangle as an attention-diverting political maneuver against the Democrats’ surge into D.C. For example, Trump has just picked migration hawk Stephen Miller to serve as his Chief of Staff. Stephen Miller arrives for a roundtable event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Wednesday, August 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Trump’s comments also go against the flow of the wipeout election, where the public showed little support for an amnesty pushed by the Democratic Party’s radicals. The New York Times admitted: This year’s candidates frequently denounced ideas — on immigration, energy, policing, gender [sex] and voter ID — that have taken hold in elite left-leaning circles and alienated many working-class Americans of all races. Winning candidates often took a middle ground … If you do not live in a place with a 2026 battleground campaign, you may not realize how strongly the Democrats turned toward social moderation. … One candidate after another criticized the laxness of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy. “A disaster,” said Mr. Hamilton. “Really terrible,” said Paige Cognetti, who defeated a Republican congressman in northeast Pennsylvania. “Out of control,” said Chris Pappas, a senator-elect in New Hampshire, adding that it “made America less safe.” In Texas, Gina Hinojosa, the governor-elect, went so far as to praise the Trump border policy. “There is no question that crossings are way down, and there is no question it is because of President Trump,” she said. Even Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive senator-elect from Michigan, criticized the party’s loose earlier approach to border enforcement. “We got that wrong,” he said on “60 Minutes.” The self-described moderates at the SearchLight Institute noted: In Texas, immigration was comparatively more relevant than in other major states, and it was one of the only issues where Paxton had the advantage over Talarico. Texas Latinos were no more likely to report immigration as a top issue than Texas voters overall, although they were more focused on corruption than most voters. Unsurprisingly, the administration is doing some damage control amid the public rejection of Trump’s amnesty dangle: Criticism of Trump flooded through X: Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Fox News, is using Fox hosts to push for amnesties: Business owners, including roofing contractors, are also pushing for amnesties to protect their foreign labor: