She seems pissed.

IF TRUMP WAS FDR: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself. But

nothing against fear. Fear is good too, believe me." — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 10, 2018

IF TRUMP WAS JFK: "Ask not what your country can do for you.

Unless you want to. Then ask away." — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 10, 2018

IF TRUMP WAS REAGAN: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

Or leave it up. Your call, I'm good either way." — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 10, 2018

She’s annoyed about the exchange between Trump, Dianne Feinstein, and Kevin McCarthy at the big amnesty huddle in the White House yesterday. If you missed it at the time, watch the clip at the end of the post here. Feinstein suggests a “clean” DACA bill — “clean,” of course, meaning a standalone amnesty for DREAMers with no new enforcement measures attached. A total and complete sellout by border hawks to legalization fans, in other words. And Trump … seems to like the idea, spurring McCarthy to leap in and insist on some security measures in the bill. The White House was so embarrassed by it that it “accidentally” omitted Trump’s words supporting Feinstein’s idea from the official transcript of the meeting. The best-case scenario is that the president still doesn’t understand what a “clean” bill is, nearly a year into his administration. The worst-case is that he understood perfectly well what Feinstein meant and was prepared to agree with it until McCarthy interjected.

This isn’t the first time he’s allegedly gotten confused on immigration either. Coulter points to the Michael Wolff book in the clip below, claiming that Trump’s behavior at the meeting validates the rumors that POTUS has a tendency to agree with whoever the last person was to whisper in his ear about an issue, particularly if it’s immigration. But those rumors have been circulating for ages, long before Wolff even started interviewing people for “Fire & Fury.” Remember how his Hispanic Advisory Council momentarily seemed to turn him into an amnesty fan during the summer of 2016? Remember this Politico story from September?

In February, at a meeting with bipartisan senators, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) raised the idea of immigration reform and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) floated the idea of a 2013 Gang of Eight bill. As Trump expressed interest, opponents of the comprehensive immigration reform bill such as Republicans Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Cornyn steered the president back on course, reminding him of his campaign promises. “Cornyn’s like: ‘No, no, no, you campaigned against that bill,” recalled a senator in attendance. “And Grassley’s like: ‘No.’”

That’s exactly what happened yesterday, on live television. And remember, this is no esoteric issue like the border-adjustment tax. This is his bread and butter, immigration policy, the sort of thing Trump should know like the back of his hand. But he keeps lunging at offers for amnesty and “establishment” Republicans, the supposed sellouts whom candidate Trump was going to smite, keep dragging him back to the hawkish position. We’ve spent a lot of time this week hearing about how Steve Bannon overestimated the loyalty of his political base. If Trump gets suckered into a giveaway on immigration with grassroots favorites like Coulter and Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin hooting at him, we’ll find out how loyal his own base is.

You know what, though? I bet it’s pretty loyal. Aidan McLaughlin asks a good question at Mediaite: Who cares what Coulter or Carlson or Levin or any border hawk thinks? The shining lesson of the Bannon saga is that even the most ardent prominent nationalists can be obliterated among the nationalist base on the say-so of the president. We’ve been over this before but it bears repeating: Coulter and Carlson are nationalists, people who adhere to a certain ideology. Trump is a Trumpist, someone who adheres to the idea that whatever Trump thinks sounds good must be the right policy. Don’t force grassroots Republicans to choose between the two, McLaughlin warns. As Steve Bannon could tell you, you might not like how they choose.

Most Trump backers, it turns out, actually support DACA. Polling from last year found a whopping 73 percent said Dreamers should be allowed to stay in the U.S. and become legal residents. Nearly half, 48 percent, said they should have a pathway to citizenship. Those numbers are certain to give Coulter an aneurism. What’s more, Coulter seems to think Trump voters care about specific immigration policies more than immigration as a broader issue fueled by campaign rhetoric. Studies suggest they don’t. Indeed, the wall was always more of a loin-stirring rally cry than a deal-breaker policy proposal for Republican voters… This has been demonstrated ad nauseam by the steady stream of reporters venturing into Trump country to find his base is holding strong: his supporters couldn’t care less about what the president actually does. They care more about what he says.

Every few months Trump says something alarmingly pro-amnesty and soon enough Coulter turns up on Fox looking mopey, just like she did after she idolized Mitt Romney and (deep breath) Chris Christie and then they went and disappointed her. This is who Trump is. Stop trying to pound the square Trumpist peg into the round nationalist hole. Having defenestrated the head of Breitbart with a few phone calls, Trump’s never had less reason to care what hardcore nationalists like Ann and Tucker think. If you want him to hold firm and extract something meaningful in return for a DREAM amnesty, you’d better hope Stephen Miller is eating his Wheaties and drinking his Gatorade in trying to hold off congressional Republicans from letting POTUS make a bad deal. Because right now, he may be the only person willing and able to bend Trump’s ear to the right on immigration instead of to the left.

Here’s Coulter and Carlson struggling with the horror of knowing that they’re now at the mercy of a populist god they created, and that the usual trick to rein in a big-name pol, appealing to ideological purity, won’t work on him at all.



