Leigh Ann Caldwell:
Yes, well the president is very good at setting expectations and then also moving the goalposts too and being able to message in a way that still gives it — makes him seem like he has come out on top.
And so that’s one of his superpowers. But you do see in polling that people are starting to get frustrated maybe not with missing deadlines, but just with the back-and-forth, the chaoticness of what is actually happening.
I mean, on immigration specifically, Donald Trump pulled back after he had heard from his agriculture secretary, who was hearing from Republican members of Congress and business leaders that it was impacting their businesses, farms. And then, of course, he was in the hotel and restaurant industry. He knows a lot of people in that industry too.
And so, instead of making it seem like he is pulling back from a promise that he had, he has now redirected his focus on states and cities where Democrats control, promising still to meet his deportation X quotas by focusing on immigrants who he says are criminals, the ones that live in blue states.
So it’s an — the president is distracting, redirecting and also trying to make it seem like he is still accomplishing what he said he would do.
