Republicans fear 'going public with their true feelings' as Trump courts political liability

When Donald Trump narrowly won the United States' 2024 presidential election, polls showed that the economy — especially inflation — was a high priority for Trump voters. Another top concern was immigration, with many voters calling for the deportation of violent criminals who were in the U.S. illegally.

But Trump's immigration policies are now drawing widespread criticism following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens during immigration crackdowns in Minneapolis: first motorist Renee Nicole Good by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross on January 7, then nurse Alex Pretti — who worked in an intensive care unit (ICU) in a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital — by U.S. Border Patrol agents on Saturday, January 24.

In an article published on January 26, Politico's Jonathan Martin stresses that some GOP lawmakers fear that immigration has become a liability for their party and are hoping to bring their concerns to President Trump's attention.

"Immigration, broadly, as one veteran senator granted anonymity to speak candidly told me over the weekend, is for the GOP what health care is for Democrats — a 'home game,'" Martin reports. "Yet with viral images of Americans being shot in broad daylight replacing migrants stampeding across the country's border, that advantage is quickly dissipating. So what are Republican elected officials doing to address what could prove calamitous, for the country and their political fortunes? To date, it's the usual approach. They plead with Trump and his advisers in private to calm tensions, as a handful did this weekend."

Martin continues, "However, most officials hope one of their colleagues can do that work so they don't have to play the heavy. 'You can talk to them' or 'Can you talk to them?' are phrases I don't need access to text chains to know are being relayed between top Republicans."

GOP lawmakers, according to Martin, make a point of praising Trump before they segue into a sensitive subject.

"When lawmakers do reach Trump," Martin reports, "the dialogue is similar to those private messages he posted last week from European leaders eager to get him off his Greenland fetish: Start with praise and flattery before moving to the heart of the matter. And while hope may not be a strategy, as the saying goes, there's a whole lot of hope among Republican officials — mostly that they don't have to go public with their true feelings, because if they wait for a few days, the president will consume so much media coverage he'll recognize the depth of the crisis."

Read Jonathan Martin's full article for Politico at this link.

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