Trump supporters left furious over ex-president's unexpected policy (2024)

Supporters of former President Donald Trumphave reacted furiously to a recent announcement that he backs bringing 'a lot of' migrants into the country.

Trump, 78, made the remarks Thursday at a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, outside hisTrump National Golf Club.

'Basically, we're going to drill, baby drill, get the energy prices down, almost immediately, we're going to close the border and get the bad ones out,' the Republican began. 'And we're gonna let a lot of people come in.'

More immigrants are needed, he said, 'because [the US] need[s] more people - especially AI coming and all [these] different things.

'The farmers need, everybody needs,' the candidate further stated - before quickly specifying, 'but we're going to make sure they're not murderers, killers, drug dealers, and the kind of people we have largely coming in right now.'

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While far from a deviation from any of his old policies, Trump's statements sparked an outcry from conservatives, including some on the far-right of the voter base.

In a reply to video of his announcement posted by the magazine The American Conservative on X, the replies were largely negative and expressed incredulity at the policy shift.

'Why is he talking like this all of a sudden?' wrote one onlooker, days after Trump told the platform's CEO Elon Musk that he still wants to 'seal the border and stop the migrant invasion'.

Another stated: 'Why does a country like the US, whose population is more than a third of a billion, need more immigration?'

'Then I won't be voting,' added another, apparently fed-up with the influx of migrants seen in recent years.

'NO MORE IMMIGRATION - WE ARE FULL,' said someone else, all replying to a re-shared snippet of the speech published later that day.

Some accused the aspiring president of flip-flopping, others of pandering to the left.

Some of the comments came from so-called 'Groypers', a group of alt-right and white nationalist online trolls.

It comes as a slew of far-right activists, including Candace Owens, have voiced concerns that Trump has been 'captured by the Deep State.'

In an appearance alongside the chauvinist provocateur Andrew Tate last week, Owens mused: 'It doesn't feel to me like the same Trump from 2015.'

She added: 'Obviously he's the better candidate. I want Trump to win as well, but it does seem that now he's accepted money that he can't be as hardcore about certain topics and certain issues as he was back in 2015 when there was no chance he was gonna win.'

Meanwhile, an increasingly heated race against Kamala Harris continues to unfold, spurring Trump on Thursday to focus much of his speech on not only immigration policy, but the economy.

For the current state of both, Trump blamed the other candidate, but made it clear he still supports immigration through the proper channels.

To that, one commenter quipped, 'We need negative immigration!', while sharing a quote from Daily Wire's Matt Walsh that branded the recent wave of arrivals from across the globe by way of South and Central America 'reverse colonization.'

Another proclaimed: 'No, we have enough people, immigration needs to be stopped until we can deal with our own people.'

Said someone else: 'Trump is echoing the talking points of open borders silicon valley tech moguls.'

'I don't support legal immigration,' another person simply said.

Another deemed the statement 'a complete betrayal of the forgotten Americans who made the Trump revolution possible', despite Trump already stating several times he only wants to stop some of the border crossings seen over the past several years.

Those who immigrate legally are welcome, he has repeatedly said - while those doing so under the pretense of seeking asylum are not.

This fact appeared lost on those who spoke out against the ex-president, who in his speechfalsely claimed that 'virtually 100 percent of the net job creation in the last year has gone to migrants.'

He further claimed that he had heard the growth was 'actually beyond that number, 100 percent,' in an apparent attempt to bash improvements to the statistic seen under Harris and Biden.

He also said Harris was a more ideal opponent for him than her predecessor - despite shifting polls suggesting otherwise.

He also took aim at Harris's newly announced running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom he accused of 'puttingtampons in boys' bathrooms' in his state's public schools.

In 2023, Walz signed a law that required public schools to provide access to menstrual products in bathrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12. The legislation does not distinguish by gender but states menstrual products must be available to 'all menstruating students.'

'He approved a bill recently tampons in boys' bathrooms,' Trump said of the guidance that leaves the placement of such products up to the individual school

'He wants tampons in boys' bathrooms. It's terrible.'

In terms of the border, Trump said that Harris - whom he has previously accused of being Biden's Border Czar - has allowed more than '20 million' illegals into the country.

There have only been 9.9 million immigration encounters during the Biden administration, US Customs and Border Patrol date shows - a number that inflates to 11.6millions when accounting for those not stopped by border officials, per estimates from Homeland Security.

Trump proceeded to speak for almost an hour before taking questions from reporters, after members of his team put posters calling attention to 'price increases since [Harris] took office.'

The speech came three days after Trump, who was recently reinstated to Twitter after a yearslong absence over incendiary tweets, touted a list of '20 Core Promises' meant to 'Make America Great Again.'

Among those tenets were 'Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion,' and 'Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history'

Also promised was an 'End inflation,' and to 'make America affordable again' - not to mention putting a stop to 'World War Three, [the restoration of] peace in Europe and in the middle east, and [to build a great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country -all made in America.'

Hedid not announce any new policy proposals on Thursday.