Analysis | Analysis: Trump’s shift on immigration highlights struggle to attract more than core supporters
New York billionaire trails badly behind among blacks, Hispanics and Asians in a campaign catering to white Americans
Donald Trump’s latest contortions over immigration policy underscore one of his most daunting challenges: speaking to multiple audiences at once.
Presidential candidates often struggle to smooth sharp rhetoric as they move to moderate their image in a general election — Mitt Romney’s strategist famously likened the process to shaking a child’s Etch A Sketch.
But Trump, who won in a crowded primary season by obliterating nearly every rhetorical boundary, seems to find the task exceedingly difficult.
His support among Latinos, blacks and other minority voters ranks well behind rival Hillary Clinton, and in some cases, among the lowest ever recorded in polls. Perhaps more important to Trump’s electoral strategy, accusations of racist rhetoric have stymied his ability to consolidate moderate Republicans and independents, especially suburban women.
Yet, adjusting his message to appeal to those groups risks alienating many of Trump’s core supporters, who are drawn to his tough promises to deport immigrants here illegally and the belief that he says what he means.
“It’s a little late to say, ‘Oh, never mind’,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who advised Florida Senator Marco Rubio during the primary. “He might conceivably make a little more progress with Republican-leaning voters who have been put off by his rhetoric, but you’ve got to balance that against the people who were attracted by him in the first place because of his pledge to deport 11 million illegal immigrants.”