Purple Strategies Chairman and Founding Partner and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos criticized GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s immigration plan and said that after Trump loses in the primary “there will be a cleansing that’ll go on” in the GOP on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360.” Castellanos said, “let me just say, wow, even Republicans wouldn’t say that Barack Obama has been arrogant enough to rewrite the Constitution that way [to end birthright citizenship]. But, in a general election — look, right now, this hurts the Republican Party. If you think the Republican Party hasn’t alienated enough Hispanics, enough women, enough young voters, why, Donald Trump’s immigration plan is going to be great for you. You’re going to love that. In a general election though, Trump is not going to be the nominee. When he leaves, he’ll be defeated by an anti-Trump. So, there will be a cleansing that’ll go on, in the — once he is knocked out of primaries. And I think you will see a new, and better, and more optimistic, solution- oriented Republican Party going into the general election.”
Earlier, he stated Trump’s plan is “about as realistic as one of the big neon signs on one of Donald Trump’s buildings. Not much.” And “Well, this is one of the biggest expansions of federal power that anyone has ever proposed in American history. Donald Trump would need an army of armed federal agents, with guns, from Washington, to deport 11 million people. He’d need the same army to start deporting children who were born here in the United States and are now American citizens. He says he’s going to stop people from sending money back to their home countries. Does that mean he’s going to give Washington the power to open our Fed-Ex packages? He is now interfering with American business saying, [paraphrasing], ‘By the way, if you want to hire an H-1B visa candidate, somebody to come over here and do technical work. Guess what? It’s going to cost you more. Because Washington and I say so.’ He is not a small-government conservative. Donald Trump thinks bigger government is great as long as he’s running it, and not those stupid politicians. So, this is, I think, a very unrealistic plan.”
He also argued, “This sounds like the Democratic Party we have now. ‘We’re from Washington. We have a plan for you.’ Donald Trump is not an anti- Washington guy. He just thinks the wrong people are running it. He’s all about more power from Washington telling us how to live our lives. He is a big corporate statist.” After Trump supporter Katrina Pierson responded, “If that were true, all the Washington pundits wouldn’t be out there trying to get him right now.” Castellanos countered, “The [conservative ones] are.”
