Trump squints. Shakes his head. Raises his hand and gestures, pointing his index finger upwards into the air. The crowd roars and he says, ‘I love you Arizona.’

In the Primary Donald Trump pledged to deport every illegal immigrant but then, in the General Election, he back-stepped, calling it a ‘softening.’   

If tomorrow Hillary said, suddenly, she would repeal Obamacare her own people would say in disgust, ‘She’s just doing that to get elected,’ and Republicans would say, ‘See. We told you. You can’t believe a word she says.’ Deporting illegal immigrants has been as much a part of Trump’s creed as Obamacare is of Hillary’s, so his retreat left his supporters scratching their heads. But last Wednesday in Phoenix he meant to fix the problem.

‘Countless innocent Americans,’ Trump said, ‘Have been killed by illegal immigrants. So many people. So many, many people. So sad.’

He said he’d build an ‘impenetrable, physical, tall, beautiful wall.’

‘There’re two million criminal aliens here,’ he said. ‘And day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone.’

‘Sixty-two percent of the illegal immigrants get welfare like Food Stamps,’ he said. ‘Tremendous costs. Tremendous costs. Remove them.’

He scowled. The crowd cheered. He was the old stout-hearted Donald. 

Then having reassured the faithful he said almost as if it was an afterthought, “In several years when we have accomplished all our deportation goals… we will be in a position to consider the appropriate disposition of individuals who remain.”

Those who remain?

He had said deport, deport, deport. Then turned around and said years from now there’ll be illegal immigrants here he hadn’t deported.

And tried to have it both ways.