By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
It’s now pretty well settled wisdom that Democrats lost the presidency in 2024 mostly because they fumbled two key issues: inflation and immigration. Yes, there were other issues that mattered, notably Joe Biden’s age and late replacement with Kamala Harris. But while that won’t be an issue when Democrats reach for the White House again, where they stand on inflation and immigration will still matter. Donald Trump has kept the inflation issue alive with his foolish tariffs and unnecessary Iran war. He has also overreached on immigration, creating an opportunity for Democrats to offer an alternative path in 2028.
Had President Trump simply focused on temporarily closing the border to asylum seekers and deporting undocumented people with violent criminal records, he’d be in vastly better shape. But instead, his mass-deportation program has extended far beyond the “worst of the worst” he’s always talking about, heavily targeting legal immigrants whose status is being arbitrarily revoked and using highly visible cruelty to encourage self-deportation. These tactics have turned what was originally and should have remained a perceived accomplishment for Trump into a handicap. Silver Bulletin’s polling averages for Trump’s handling of immigration shows his approval ratio at 43 percent approval and 55 percent disapproval.
