BYRON YORK: A Brief Theory Of Trump’s Outrageousness.

The first thing to remember is that many of Trump’s supporters, and a large part of the American public in general, support the very statements others consider outrageous. Deport 11 million illegal immigrants? Many Americans, including almost everyone in the media, think that’s crazy. But many other Americans agree with Trump.

The recent brouhaha over whether Trump did or did not suggest a federal government database of all Muslims in the United States is another example. Trump didn’t actually suggest it — the idea came from a reporter with Yahoo News — but he never clearly shot it down, either. Like deportations, a poll on the Muslim database question would likely show a significant number of Americans agreeing with the idea.

So maybe Trump just has a lot of outrageous ideas. Or perhaps something else, something more strategic, is going on. . . .

Trump got to the heart of the matter. “The word compromise is absolutely fine. But if you are going to compromise, ask for about three times more than you want. You understand? So when you compromise, you get what you want.”

Perhaps deporting all illegal immigrants is the political version of asking for about three times more than you want.

Trump has repeated his deportation vow many times. But few have noted that when Trump rolled out his written immigration plan, posted on his campaign website, there was nothing about mass deportation. In addition to Trump’s famous “beautiful wall,” the plan had a lot of mainstream conservative proposals about securing the border and tightening interior enforcement.

The effect of Trump’s deportation proposal was to pull the Republican immigration debate toward immigration and further right — that is, where Trump wanted it to go. When Trump made an actual written proposal, even an abbreviated campaign-style proposal, it was more measured.

He’s also — and this is related, but not quite the same — moving the Overton Window by making things that were previously unmentionable into subjects of popular discussion.