John Boehner said the White House’s immigration policies would need to evolve beyond deportation and he pointed to the readiness of a comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress. Boehner: 'Trump may be the immigrant’s best friend'

Former House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday offered a bold statement about the future of President Donald Trump’s relationship with the immigrant community: “Four years from now, Donald Trump may be the immigrant’s best friend.”

It caused a double-take at the Orlando health care conference — former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Boehner’s opposite member onstage, asked, “Are you all right?”


The Trump administration has pursued controversial immigration policies, which include his executive order to temporarily ban immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries and his administration’s aggressive new guidance on deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Boehner said the White House’s immigration policies would need to evolve beyond deportation, and he pointed to the readiness of a comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress.

The former speaker's somewhat unlikely prediction was only the beginning of his colorful comments. Trump's former golfing buddy also offered dyspeptic takes on the state of democratic governance in the country.

“There was one Democrat Donald Trump could beat, and that was Hillary Clinton. There was one Republican Clinton could beat, and that was Donald Trump,” Boehner said of the November presidential election. “We’ve got 330 million Americans, my God, how’d we get into this slop?”

Boehner also suggested Trump’s ongoing war with the “dishonest media” and “fake news” would prove counterproductive. “You never get in a pissing match with a skunk. You can’t win!” he said.

But Boehner wasn’t ready to condemn the administration wholesale, saying Trump would likely govern as he campaigned: in a manner that was “sometimes divisive, sometimes incoherent … but sometimes effective.”

He also stated that Trump had the opportunity to accomplish big things, though — beside his immigration prediction — Boehner was circumspect about the chances of big legislation making its way through Congress. “We’ll see” on tax reform, he said.

And Boehner said changes to the Affordable Care Act were likely to be relatively modest.

“[Congressional Republicans are] going to fix Obamacare — I shouldn’t call it repeal-and-replace, because it’s not going to happen,” he said. “Republicans never ever agree on health care.”

In the end, “Most of the framework of the Affordable Care Act … that’s going to be there,” he concluded.

