Throughout his second term as president, Donald Trump has enjoyed a bounty of forgiveness from his MAGA constituents and Republicans generally. No bad turn has gone unappreciated. Until now.
Suddenly, the White House and Republicans in Congress seem compelled to change the party’s tune to de-emphasize some prized aspirations such as mass deportation and vaccine pullbacks ahead of the midterm elections. They must have noticed that many voters, not just Democrats, have been turned off by the administration’s deportation and health policies as well as the killings of innocent Americans by out-of-control immigration agents.
Even if many Americans support a secure southern border, they’re having a hard time swallowing the mass removal of people who were not criminals but law-abiding folks with homes, families and jobs. They may be here without permission, but this isn’t what we mean by “criminal,” and MAGA knows it. Arguing that entering the country illegally ipso facto makes people “criminals” stretches beyond even what Trump means when he talks about getting rid of the worst of the worst.
More than half of the people deported by midsummer 2025 had no criminal conviction, according to a Washington Post analysis. Nearly 60 percent of Americans say Trump has gone too far with his immigration policies, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. And 62 percent oppose aggressive tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Although one might wish for higher numbers, these figures show accountability and voting remain important. When asked by The Post last month what range of deportations he supports, Trump said: “I want to see everybody” deported, “but we’re focusing on the criminals. We’re focusing on killers.”
By this, one might assume he’s including the immigration agents who fatally shot two civilians in Minneapolis. I wouldn’t mind seeing the guys who killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti perp walked into Alligator Alcatraz for some time out with other criminals. Maybe dog-killing cowgirl Kristi L. Noem, whom Trump recently removed as homeland security secretary, could join them. Now that would be good TV.
It’s refreshing to hear a Republican senator, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, speak up against a Trump appointee, demanding her exit. Tillis excoriated Noem at a March 3 Senate hearing for killing her 14-month-old dog. Tillis called Noem’s leadership a “disaster” and slammed her book’s framing of the dog killing as a “leadership lesson.” Please make me dictator for one day.
What matters, of course, isn’t Trump’s policies, or the people — and puppy — who suffered under Noem. It’s the midterms. And that means Republicans largely have to reinvent themselves to win. It’s hard to win when you’re awful. Thus, congressional leaders meeting in Florida for a retreat Tuesday were instructed by party and White House officials to avoid talking about mass deportation and focus instead on removing violent criminals from the United States. Even Trump has begun walking back his campaign promise of deporting up to 20 million undocumented immigrants (more than are actually here) and instead is calling for protections for undocumented workers in hospitality and agriculture jobs.
If it’s not too much to ask, could we keep some construction workers, too? And house painters? Presumably, “agriculture” covers the armies of gardeners who keep Palm Beach’s manicured hedges trimmed to within an inch of their lives.
In a related matter, Republicans are also retreating from attacking the covid-19 mRNA vaccines, fearing that changes to vaccine policy could hurt them in the midterms. Members of a federal vaccine advisory board handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had been weighing a plan to no longer recommend the shots because of debunked claims that DNA contaminants in the vaccines were harmful.
Rationally, if I may so speak, picking a policy or altering a plan for such transparently political reasons should only undermine confidence in HHS and Republicans, rather than inspire voters to race to the polls and secure more of the same. The vaccines either are or aren’t good for people. Which is it? The answer, of course, is which position is best for Republicans trying to hold their Senate and House majorities. So much for public health.
Such cynical messaging is hardly revolutionary strategizing. The goal is always to maintain power, and messaging is the means. On that score, Democrats need only not screw up. Their messages have already been told by Republicans: the two dead Americans in Minneapolis, the 5-year-old boy detained by ICE agents in the freezing cold, mass deportations of non-criminals and now rising gas prices that probably will worsen for weeks if not months.
It is pleasantly ironic that Trump, who has been attacking democratic institutions for years, is having to adjust to the most basic institution, one that he can’t get around: voting.
The post The GOP is getting a makeover — just in time for the midterms appeared first on Washington Post.
