‘There is a lot of hope that Trump can tackle immigration’, says Republican strategist

Cassie Smedile is a Republican strategist and former Press Secretary for the Republican National Committee.

We asked her what she thought was the secret of Trump’s success.

Cassie Smedile: I think very specifically, you saw in how he opened up his closing message at those final rallies. ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?’ It was clear, it was succinct and it was trusting the American people to have a good memory. And over the course of these last four years when the administration, day after day the Biden administration would say, ‘things are great, things are going better, you should be feeling good’. People were saying ‘we’re not and we’re trying to tell you that’.

Matt Frei: Let’s talk about some of the things that he said he would do. What about tariffs, first of all. I think he said 20 per cent tariffs on most imports, maybe 60 per cent on Chinese imports. Do you think he’ll go through with that?

Cassie Smedile: I think the tariff policy is going to be interesting to look at. Of course, the tariffs that he levied against China during his first term were so effective that the Biden administration maintained them. So there is an argument to be made for what happens when you put pressure on countries and industries that have been taking advantage of Americans and American jobs and the American economy.

Matt Frei: But you’re not worried about what many people fear might be a trade war or growing protectionism, which would kill the global economy?

Cassie Smedile: I just think, again, we know what life looked like under the first Trump term when you had gas at less than $2 a gallon. You had mortgages that you could afford. You had access to goods. They had such issues, Joe Biden, who’s supposed to be the great negotiator, the great guy with unions. We had strikes that really interrupted our gateway, our pathway to get our goods and services. Under Donald Trump, there was no such shortage. So those are kind of those everyday examples that voters were taking with them to the polls yesterday.

Matt Frei: Finally and briefly, although it’s a rather big issue of course, immigration, top of the list for many people here in terms of how they voted. Again, Donald Trump has said that he would start mass deportations of illegal immigrants as soon as he gets into office. Is that something that will actually happen?

Cassie Smedile: I think it’s important to see how you saw the swing in minority voting blocs towards Donald Trump last night. And one thing we’ve seen in polling for years, not just in this election cycle, is that you’d be hard pressed to find people who are more in favour of legal immigration than those who have immigrated here legally. There is a lot of hope that Donald Trump will be able to wrap his arms around this very real problem. People are very concerned about their neighbourhoods that were once taken for granted to be safe places, that you’re now seeing crime from illegal immigrants.

Matt Frei: But just very briefly, Cassie, there are maybe 12 million, 30 million, we don’t really know, illegal migrants in this country. Deporting all of them, or even half of them or a third of them, is going to be impossible and incredibly disruptive.

Cassie Smedile: You’re right. It’s a huge issue that they’re going to have to figure out how to tackle, and hopefully with a helpful congress, they’ll be able to put something together that can make it somewhat tenable. But here’s the bottom line of what I think what will happen, is the countries to the south of us, those heading north to the United States, they heard yesterday’s message loud and clear that our border is now closed.