Like a ringing endorsement from the past, an old video of former President Bill Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union address sounds just like a campaign ad for former President Donald Trump.
In fact, the footage echoes so much of what Trump has said about the U.S.-Mexico border crisis that his son, Donald Trump, Jr., is wondering if the Trump campaign should run the untouched video as a straight message of endorsement.
“All Americans … are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country,” Clinton said almost 30 years ago. “The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers.”
“I’m Donald Trump Jr and I approve this message,” Trump, Jr. responded on social media with a laughing emoji. “Close enough?”
The border security that Trump has advocated was once a mainstream position within the Democratic Party establishment.
In 1994, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called for a secure border during an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“Border control is a federal responsibility. We simply don’t enforce our borders adequately,” Feinstein warned. “In my state, you have about 2,000 people a day, illegally, who cross the border. Now, this adds up to about 2 million people who compete for housing, who compete for classroom space.”
“In 1988, there were about 3,000 people on Medicaid. There are well over 300,000 today [on Medicaid] who are illegal aliens,” he said. “That presents obvious problems.”
Take a look at Clinton “endorsing” Trump and the border wall —
I’m Donald Trump Jr and I approve this message. (Close enough?😜) https://t.co/wnKRPgDcbk
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 27, 2024
Almost 30 years later, and things have gotten significantly worse.
Illegal immigrants are pouring across an open U.S.-Mexico border, and for the first time ever over half of Americans reportedly support constructing a wall.
That’s according to a new poll by Monmouth University, a left-leaning organization that found 53 percent of voters now back the wall as a partial solution to a wave of illegal crossings that has overwhelmed the southern border since President Joe Biden took office.
The poll also discovered half the public feels a collapsed Senate immigration deal did not sufficiently tackle border enforcement issues.
The results mark a dramatic swing in public opinion since 2015, when Trump first proposed a southern border wall to liberal outrage.
Since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican border governors began busing illegal immigrants from red states to Democrat-controlled “sanctuary cities,” the concern about illegal immigrants has jumped significantly versus figures from both Obama and Trump’s administrations.
Support for a wall among independents rose over 10 points to 58 percent favorability. Republican backing jumped to 86 percent under Biden’s leadership. Democratic approval slid 14 points down to just 17 percent in poll.
Over 80 percent of respondents view illegal immigration as a serious problem, including strong majorities of all partisan affiliations.
Monmouth University reported —
More than 8 in 10 Americans see illegal immigration as either a very serious (61%) or somewhat serious (23%) problem. The 6 in 10 who describe it as a very serious problem represents a jump from polls taken at the end of former President Barack Obama’s administration to the midpoint of former President Donald Trump’s term. Specifically, the view that illegal immigration poses a very serious problem for the country ranged between 43% and 49% from 2015 to 2019.
Concern about illegal immigration has increased among all partisan groups. This rise is most notable among Republicans, from 66% very serious in 2015 to 77% in 2019 and 91% in the current poll. Among independents, 58% say this is a very serious problem, up from just over 4 in 10 who said the same in both 2015 (42%) and 2019 (43%). A similar level of concern among Democrats now stands at 41%, after dipping from 33% in 2015 to 26% in 2019.
The Horn editorial team