Scott Jennings, a CNN contributor, is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and former campaign adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell. He is a partner at RunSwitch Public Relations in Louisville, Kentucky. Follow him on Twitter @ScottJenningsKY. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) Many conservatives cheered as President Donald Trump pursued adding a question about American citizenship back into the Census forms that will be delivered nationwide next year. It seems common sense that a nation would want to know how many citizens it has, after all.

Scott Jennings

Polling backed up that sentiment. Sixty percent of Americans, including "a majority of voters from all demographics" and a plurality of Democrats (49%), backed the president's position in a Hill-HarrisX national survey. A second survey — this one by YouGov in conjunction with The Economist — found 53 percent of Americans wanted the question asked versus just 32 percent who didn't.

Democrats raged against the question, claiming it would deter people from filling out the form. What people? Presumably those living in the United States illegally. While Trump's ultimately backing down on adding the question disappointed many conservatives, the political optics were clear: Trump had yet again baited the Democrats into taking the wrong side of a hot button issue.

Trump's message is that he believes the American president should fight for American citizens, and all Democrats want to do is fight for illegal immigrants.

Add the census question to a long list of examples Trump will use to bludgeon his opponent on immigration in 2020. Each time a Democratic presidential candidate or leading member of Congress calls for decriminalizing illegal border crossings, providing free health care plans for illegal immigrants, removing existing border barriers , or eliminating ICE and DHS — agencies that enforce our immigration laws — they further entrench themselves on the wrong side of a larger political and cultural issue that continues to drive widespread voter intensity.

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