[...] “If Mr. Trump were to go down a path of wishy-washy positions taken on things that the core foundation of his support has so appreciated, and that is respecting our Constitution and respecting law and order in America, then yeah, there would be massive disappointment,” Mrs. Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president in 2008, said in a telephone interview with the Wall Street Journal. “Parts of that message we heard in the last week are clearly not consistent with the stringent position and message that supporters have received all along.”

At a Fox News town hall on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said “the bad ones” who came to the U.S. illegally have to leave, but he said the federal government could “work with” others with families who have lived here for years.

“The focus needs to be not on whether an illegal immigrant is a good person or a bad person but how sustainable it is to incentivize illegal immigrants to come over our borders,” Mrs. Palin said. [...]