What's Old is New Again
Tom Homan is back. I’m glad the President did this. A number of reporters asked if I was somehow responsible, given my Sunday morning piece and the President’s subsequent social media statement and Homan’s re-engagement. I had nothing to do with it. The President saw the situation, understood it was unacceptable, and altered course.
I know the President heard from a lot of conservative friends and allies that he needed to chart a different course from the one Noem established. I know he heard from plenty of elected officials, too.
I have some very dear friends who look on this as some sort of surrender against demonic forces out to destroy the nation. If we surrender to the progressive mob that will engage in violence and disruption to get their way, we are toast.
My take is more straightforward. Contrary to some of the rightwing polling, the shooting of Alex Pretti and swarming border patrol into cities does not play with normal people who still hate the Left more than the President. Continuing down this road could dramatically change their minds.
Trump supporters cannot win on their own. They need a coalition of normal people. Normal people care deeply about deportations, but they also care deeply about their neighbors. They don’t like seeing Americans shot. Renee Good could be explained. Alex Pretti was harder to explain. And what about the next dead American?
Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski, Greg Bovino, and Stephen Miller all wanted mass round-ups of illegal aliens. The problem is that Americans and legal resident aliens were getting caught up in the roundups. In local communities from South Florida to Orange County, CA, people legally allowed to be here were getting detained. You may not hear those stories, but they circulate on the local news channels most Americans still watch.
In accomplishing their goals, they tried to marginalize or push out Tom Homan, the presidentially appointed Border Czar, Todd Lyons, the head of ICE, and Rodney Scott, the head of US Customs and Border Protection — all three had negative stories planted about them in various places and Homan, who was in charge of nothing, could generally be ignored by a Cabinet Secretary who was also the boss of the other two.
A course correction was needed. Alex Pretti’s death expedited it. The new strategy is the old strategy.
