In the span of nine days, Donald Trump took 11 different positions on immigration — the one issue his entire campaign is supposed to be based on.
On The Late Show on Tuesday, Stephen Colbert had some fun with the string of flip-flops. “That is innovative leadership,” he said, after rolling a clip of Trump stating two different positions on immigration. “For years, politicians have been so afraid of immigration reform that they wouldn’t take any position. Now Donald Trump has taken two.”
Colbert added, “This is not flip-flopping. He’s not saying up, then changing his mind to down. His position is a firm up-down.”
Colbert then rolled clips of Trump’s past contradictions. There was his ban on Muslims entering the US, which he called for in December and by May was saying is a mere “suggestion.” And even his position on Hillary Clinton has been up in the air — before, he said she’d make “a great president,” but he’s now saying she would be “terrible.”
How are these contradictions possible, even on Trump’s signature issue? Robert Costa may have an explanation in the Washington Post: “Trump tends to echo the words of whomever last spoke to him, making direct access to him even more valuable, the people said, requesting anonymity to talk about internal campaign discussions.”
As Dara Lind wrote for Vox, “The answer to, ‘What’s President Donald Trump doing on immigration?’ — a question on which the lives of millions of people hang — might depend on his schedule for the day.”
Colbert had another spin on the immigration flip-flops: “Whatever you believe, Trump agrees with you. I don’t know why he’s not getting 100 percent of the vote.”
