As state Republicans try to chart a path out of electoral oblivion, several of them expressed incredulity that Donald Trump would follow the election thrashing by antagonizing one of the few minority groups that has consistently voted for GOP candidates.

“Trump shovels more dirt on California Republicans’ grave…” Republican Assemblyman and former leader Chad Mayes tweeted in response to reports that the administration would revive its efforts to deport Vietnamese people who arrived in America before 1995.

A substantial number of those Vietnamese people, many of them war refugees, settled in Orange County, and a shared aversion to communism forged an enduring bond with the Republican Party — much as it did with Cuban refugees from the Castro regime.