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As the Trump administration defends its law enforcement tactics — ranging from its deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to its targeting of pro-Palestinian protesters — the White House is presenting its policies as no-brainers, questionable only to liberal cranks who are detached from reality. As USA Today noted recently, President Donald Trump is leaning into the fight over his illiberal deportation plans as a fight he thinks he can win.
But it’s worth noting that even MAGA-friendly voices have decried some of the administration’s moves.
But it’s worth noting that even MAGA-friendly voices have decried some of the administration’s moves.
Last week, for example, podcaster Joe Rogan criticized the administration for carrying out deportations without due process, calling it “dangerous.” Granted, Rogan sandwiched his point between saying the administration was engaging in “overcorrection” on the issue and that “we got to be careful that we don’t become monsters while we’re fighting monsters,” but the point was noteworthy coming from someone known for promoting far-right propaganda. Rogan also criticized a recent deportation effort as “horrific.”
On “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., called the Trump administration’s deportation of Abrego Garcia a “screw-up” and said the Trump administration won’t admit it. And far-right influencer Charlie Kirk recently condemned former U.S. Ambassador David Friedman’s celebration of the Trump administration’s potential deportations of immigrants over antisemitism claims. Kirk’s argument was also couched in MAGA propaganda.
Here’s an excerpt:
Racism and antisemitism are both evil and must be opposed. But a government organized around jailing, impoverishing, or silencing people based on ‘racism’ is what our enemies wanted. We should not repeat their mistakes just because some keffiyeh-wearing communists are protesting on campuses.
To state the obvious, these are not bleeding-heart liberals. But they stand as examples of the widely varying views many Americans have about what constitutes immigration enforcement. And they speak to why people like data journalist G. Elliott Morris argues — correctly, I believe — that there is political “opportunity” in Trump’s “overreach.”
In a recent post for his Strength In Numbers blog, Morris uses polling data to argue that while a large number of Americans may tell pollsters they support Trump’s handling of immigration in a broad sense, there’s also data showing widespread opposition to specific aspects of his administration’s immigration agenda — including its defiance of federal courts, its potential proposal to send U.S. citizens to foreign prisons, and its deportations of immigrants who haven’t broken any laws other than immigration laws.
That data, along with the recent critiques from some of the loudest MAGA-friendly voices, shows there is plenty of room for Democrats to target Trump on the issue.