Republican strategist Scott Jennings told CNN host Laura Coates Monday night that immigration was still President Donald Trump’s “best issue” despite a CNN poll showing a majority of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the issue.
Upon taking office on Jan. 20, Trump issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration, including designating Mexican drug cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and the El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations, while invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up the deportation of members of TdA and MS-13 on March 15. Jennings took issue with the poll showing Trump being underwater on immigration, telling Coates the border was “the biggest cleanup job” Trump faced when he took office. (RELATED: ‘You Sound Unhinged’: Scott Jennings Tears Into ‘Crazy’ CNN Panelist Who Claims Republicans Like White Supremacists)
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“I actually think it‘s still their best issue, and I think when it all shakes out, what are they going to be able to say? Donald Trump effectively closed the southern border just by taking office and changing the attitude of the federal government,” Jennings said. “They have deported lots of violent criminals, and frankly, they are sending a different message than the previous administration, you know, the old way was, ‘Hey, just get here and we’ll find a way and it will probably work out for you.’ The new message is, ‘Don’t come here. Please don’t come here.’ And now people know that we mean it.”
“When it all shakes out. I think we’re going to find that Donald Trump inherited — the biggest mess of all was on immigration,” Jennings continued. “He had the biggest cleanup job to do on it, and he ultimately did what he had to do to bring order to it. I still think it’s their best issue. I still think they’re going to lean into it. And obviously, it’s the issue that motivated his campaign way back in 2015, in the first place, and he stuck with it all the way through. I still think it’s their number one issue.”
During the Biden administration, the Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). A White House fact sheet released Monday showed that border crossings, migrant encounters and “gotaways” are all down by 93% or more in the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
The CNN poll, conducted from April 17-24, was released Sunday, showing Trump with a 45% approval rating overall and a 54% disapproval rating on immigration. A CBS poll showed Trump with a 49% approval rating on immigration, while maintaining a 47.8% approval rating in the RealClearPolling average.
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