Donald Trump, by agreeing to work with immigrants living illegally in the United States, has shifted his stance on the issue and now has adopted the policies of former presidential primary rival Jeb Bush MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough said Thursday.
"Jeb Bush, your immigration stand has prevailed in the Republican Party," Scarborough said, in reference to Trump's statements during a town-hall style rally emceed by Fox News' Sean Hannity Wednesday night.
"He seemed to back away from his firm insistence that began in July of last year that all undocumented immigrants need to leave the country or get out," show co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed.
In the town hall, Trump and Hannity led an informal applause poll about stances on immigration.
"You have somebody who is terrific, who has been here 20 years, can they go through a process or do they have to get out?" Trump said.
"You tell me," replied Hannity. "How many think they should go through a process? How many think they should go?"
"If you have somebody been in the country for 20 years, you have a great job at everything else, do we take him/her and the family and send them out?" said Trump. "Or it's like the merit system other than they did break the law in the first place. Do we throw them out or do we work with them?
The second option, working with immigrants, got far more applause, leading Trump to declare it was "like a poll" because there were "thousands of people in this room."
But Trump insisted there would be "no amnesty" and that "they will pay back taxes. They have to pay taxes."
Scarborough said the twist means solving immigration "the same way Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush did, with back taxes."
Brzezinski called the public applause poll a "Family Feud" method of determining a policy, and that Trump's new position stands in contract with what he has said on multiple occasions, including on the "Morning Joe" program itself in November, when she asked him if he would have a "massive deportation force" to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.
"You will have a deportation force and you'll do it humanely," he said at the time, "because you have excellent, wonderful people that have been here for a long period of time."
Bloomberg Politics Managing Editor John Heilemann said the changes stance shows how easy it is for a politician to execute a campaign pivot.
"When you have taken positions as extreme as Donald Trump has taken and they are on video tape . . . I believe there is probably videotape out there that has him praising Eisenhower's 'Operation Wetback.'
Trump did praise Eisenhower's deportation efforts in November, but did not include its pejorative name, according to The Washington Post.
Scarborough commented that there is video of Trump changing positions on many issues, but he doesn't think any of that will matter to his supporters.
"How difficult is it to pivot when your beliefs are grounded in Jell-O?" political commentator Mike Barnicle responded.
Brzezinski said she does not believe Trump is changing positions, as she is not sure he had a position to begin with.
"He does have [campaign manager] Kellyanne Conway telling him what to say," Scarborough said.