Allies squirm...

Trump's allies squirm on immigration shift

The Republican nominee's softening on his core issue has created an awkward situation for his defenders.

By Nick Gass

Donald Trump's softer talk on immigration is causing heartburn among his some of his hardline supporters, leaving them to either defend or distance themselves from his pledge to offer relief for certain undocumented immigrants.

The Republican nominee has staked much of his campaign on his promise to build a giant border wall and to use a “deportation force” to forcibly remove 11 million undocumented immigrants. But this week, he has pulled back, saying he’s open to “softening” immigration laws and that he’d like to “work with” non-criminal undocumented immigrants — a plan that sounds strikingly similar to those from Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.

"No citizenship. Let me go a step further — they'll pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there's no amnesty, as such, there's no amnesty, but we work with them," Trump said in an interview that aired Wednesday night, setting off another round of head-scratching over where he stands.

"Now, everybody agrees we get the bad ones out. But when I go through and I meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject, and I've had very strong people come up to me, really great, great people come up to me, and they've said, 'Mr. Trump, I love you, but to take a person who's been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out, it's so tough, Mr. Trump,' I have it all the time. It's a very, very hard thing,” he said.

The wobbles have incensed some of his ardent supporters and left others squirming.

Flame-throwing conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who happens to be on tour promoting her new book "In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!” laced into the Republican nominee.

"Well, if it's 'hard,' then nevermind," Coulter tweeted as part of a late-night tweetstorm going off on Trump’s openness to changing his past proposals on immigration.

Retweeting a post about a "Muslim [collecting] 4 years of welfare in Maine while becoming radicalized & joined ISIS," Coulter added sardonically, "It's 'hard' to deport someone who's been here FOUR YEARS!"

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a longtime immigration hard-liner and an early Trump supporter, was put in the awkward position of defending the nominee’s new softer approach.

"The most important thing is to focus first and foremost on a lawful system that protects the interests of the American people first. If you enter the country unlawfully you're subject to being deported. That’s just what the law has always been. But we have large number of people that have been here a very long time," Sessions told "Fox & Friends” Thursday morning.

Sessions offered his interpretation of Trump's policy as one that would still fix the immigration system first "and then we’ll wrestle with the people who have been here a long time."

"You can get on board with that?" co-host Brian Kilmeade asked.

Sessions responded, "Oh, yeah, I can be supportive of that," while warning that Trump should focus on the rule of the law before dealing with longtime undocumented residents.

"Look I think that’s some of the things that he just mentioned. He’s not announced what he’s going to do," Sessions acknowledged later in response to another question about Trump's suggestion that he would not be as willing to "round up" undocumented immigrants as he had previously suggested. "And I’m giving you some of my opinions about how I think we ought to approach this serious problem of re-establishing the lawful system of immigration and then eventually we'll have to deal with people who have been here a long time in a decent and fair way."

Ed Rollins, the head of the pro-Trump super PAC Great America PAC, was more frank in his take.

“He did stumble a little bit on the issue this week,” Rollins said Thursday during a segment on Fox News.

“He needs to have one declarative statement the rest of the way— this is my position on immigration, I'm going to stick with it,” Rollins said.

Talk show host Laura Ingraham dismissed any perceived shift by asking listeners if any of them would confuse Trump for Jeb Bush, suggesting that while the campaign's immigration plan rollout has been a "mess," the greater concern should be what Clinton would do.

Trump's campaign, meanwhile, sought to distance itself entirely from the idea that the candidate is in any way, shape or form, allying himself with amnesty, rejecting comparisons of Trump to primary opponents like Bush, Rubio, and Ted Cruz, whose ideas he routinely mocked and derided as "weak."

"It is this week what it has always been," campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN. "No amnesty."

Conway, a respected pollster who has been credited with influencing Trump’s more moderate tone, went on to explain that immigration is a “complex issue” but that “nothing has changed.”

"I also think that we should all give him credit for saying that when it comes to 11 or 12 million of illegal immigrants, A, you enforce the laws,” she told host Chris Cuomo. “You wouldn't believe, Chris, how much would change quickly if you actually enforce the laws that are not being enforced. Number two, he wants to find a quote, these are his words, quote, fair and humane way of dealing with them, and quote, he doesn't want to cause people harm. That's leadership. That's presidential."