Motives matter a lot in Trump-world. A volunteer making telephone calls for Mr Trump at Republican headquarters in Phoenix, Diana Brest, says that Mr Trump can change any policy and have her vote. “I’ll forgive him, no matter what,” she says. She offered no such absolution to the Republican politicians who, during the presidential primary contest, called it unrealistic to say that 11m people can be thrown out. Politicians are “phoney people” who say things to look good, she asserts: they betray themselves with their “swifty eyes”.
Though more people have moved from America to Mexico this decade than have gone in the opposite direction, it is instructive to ask Trump supporters why they think that Congress and successive presidents, of both parties, have not sealed America’s borders. They have no truck with talk of complex problems that defy quick fixes. Instead they see a conspiracy to leave the law unenforced, born of ill-faith and corruption. When a politician changes his line on immigration it is a betrayal. When Mr Trump does it, it is further proof that he’s not a politician, which is good.
As it happens, Mr Trump’s big speech in Phoenix contained more to comfort his hardline base than to worry them. It followed a rather awkward performance in Mexico City, involving a press conference in which Mr Trump said that he had not discussed with Mr Peña Nieto his long-standing assertion that he will force Mexico to pay for his border wall. His Mexican host took to Twitter hours later to assert that he had begun their talks by making clear Mexico would not pay for a wall. Had Mr Peña Nieto said that to Mr Trump in front of the cameras, the day could have turned disastrous for the American. Those wondering what the trip was for received a part-answer a little later when Mr Trump contrasted himself with his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. She had been invited to Mexico but not gone, Mr Trump told his Arizona audience, taking the chance to feed conspiracy theories that she is deathly ill by commenting: “She doesn’t have the strength or the stamina to make America great again.”
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