Pat Buchanan, Steve King, Jeff Sessions, Kris Kobach... All these figures, even before Trump emerged to rebrand the movement, made immigration and ruthless demographic control the center of Republic politics. They pioneered the language of 'anchor babies,' of 'White extinction' - they tapped into a cross section of fears shared not only by White supremacists, but also mainstream White Americans, that things were changing too quickly in the country.

Law Professor Robert Tsai traces the harsh White nativist logic of President Trump's immigration policies back to a multi-decade project of the right, to build an ideology around cultural nationalism, to push fear around racial demographics to the forefront of politics, and to capture power on an exclusionary, defensive agenda.

Robert wrote the Boston Review article Trumpism Before Trump with Calvin TerBeek.