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"All the things that Donald Trump railed against, he seems to be morphing into," Bush said
Some have noted that Trump's comments are starting to sound more in line with Bush's policies
Jeb Bush hammered Donald Trump Thursday after the Republican presidential nominee appeared open to major shifts on his immigration platform – several of which echoed the former Florida governor’s during the GOP primary fight.
“All the things that Donald Trump railed against, he seems to be morphing into,” Bush said in a radio interview with Rita Cosby of WABC. “It’s kind of disturbing.”
When the two men were competing in the Republican presidential primary, Trump advocated for deporting millions of undocumented immigrants and blasted politicians like Bush who wanted to allow some to stay and seek legal status as long as they met a wide range of criteria.
Now Trump is apparently signaling a major shift in his policy, saying that he’s open to working with undocumented immigrants rather than deporting them all. They won’t be allowed to pursue citizenship, he said in a Fox News town hall Wednesday night, and they’ll have to pay taxes.
Some have noted that Trump’s comments are starting to sound more in line with policies that Bush proposed – stances that Trump used to bash him during the primaries.
“I don’t know what to believe about a guy who doesn’t believe in things,” Bush said. “His views will change based on the feedback he gets from a crowd or what he thinks he has to do. Life is too complex.”
During the primary, Bush repeatedly argued that Trump’s deportation idea and proposal to build a wall along the border were “unrealistic” and wouldn’t come to pass. Although Trump is suggesting a shift in his deportation policy, he maintains he will still put up a wall and make Mexico pay for it.
When pressed on whether he was changing his policy, Trump argues that he’s still going to enforce border laws. “We’re going to have all the laws obeyed. We have laws in this country, they’re very strong but nobody uses them. We’re going to obey the laws of the country,” he said in an interview with WFLA in Tampa on Wednesday.
Bush said he was “happy” that Trump was starting to get serious about reaching out to minority voters - a core component of Bush’s own presidential campaign – and called it a “very healthy thing for our party.”
But he didn’t express much faith that Trump would be consistent. Calling Trump’s views “ever-changing,” Bush said the GOP nominee is beginning to sound like a typical “politician,” a label that Trump vehemently loathes.
“For me I couldn’t do that. I have to believe what I believe, and if it’s popular, great, if it’s not, I try to get better at presenting my views. Shifting my views because it’s political to do it? That’s what politicians do in this country, that’s what Trump is trying to do right now,” Bush said. “I find it abhorrent.”