ANDREW McCARTHY ASKS: WHERE WOULD TRUMP BE IF HE HAD RUN AS WHAT HE IS, THE AMNESTY CANDIDATE?

Mark this down: Trump is running as the immigration scourge, but there is no way the wall is happening, and there is no way the Muslim moratorium is happening. If elected, after due hemming and hawing, Trump would state the obvious: It would be impractical and prohibitively expensive to arrest and deport 11 million people just so we can bring them back again. But he would also claim that his victory was a mandate for the ultimate objective of his immigration proposal: the granting of amnesty to millions of illegal aliens through a legal process. The Trump administration would thus dispense with any talk of deportations, and proceed promptly to the legalization part of the plan.

Donald Trump is the amnesty candidate. If he had made that clear to Republican voters at the beginning, he would already be out of the race.

Try telling that to the diehard, will-not-be-swayed by any logic stylin’-shades-wearing Indiana Trump supporter whom responded to Ted Cruz’s questions and civil tone with Clockwork Spray-on Orange mechanical soundbites:

But it may all be academic. As Allahpundit wrote yesterday, “Here’s a fun idea, though: Re-interview this guy a year from now after Trump has gone down in flames and President Hillary’s preparing to sign an amnesty bill that Chuck Schumer just ushered through a Democratic Senate. See what he thinks about the wall then.”