President Donald Trump demonstrated a show of electoral force last week that gave off the appearance that he still has the juice. In Indiana’s widely-watched Republican primary on Tuesday, his quest for revenge against seven incumbent state senators who dared resist his edict to gerrymander the state’s electoral maps overwhelmingly succeeded. Some Republican pollsters said Trump’s ability to decisively oust Republicans who cross him indicates that, despite his recent breaks from some MAGA influencers, he still has a lock on his electoral base. 

But looking ahead to November’s midterm elections, Trump’s performance in Indiana is hardly reason for Republican optimism. He still holds tremendous influence over his own party, no doubt. But that seems to be his sole focus these days, as he busies himself with positions designed to allay right-wing activists in policy areas, like immigration, and provide red meat for the base in ways that are likely to cost the party soft supporters. Meanwhile, he is perpetually ignoring the one thing that could save the GOP in November: delivering on affordability.

Last week the Trump administration turned the dial up on its aggressive deportation agenda. At the Border Security Expo in Phoenix on Tuesday, White House border czar Tom Homan said, “For the people out there saying ‘President Trump’s getting weak on mass deportation,’ you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” He added, “You ain’t seen s**t yet … mass deportations are coming.” And Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin assured Newsmax viewers on Tuesday that the administration is “still on track” to hit aggressive deportation quotas. “We just are doing it in a different way by using local law enforcement to work with us,” he pointed out. 

In recent months, Trump has been forced to realize that he has to choose between immigration hawks — who are upset over his retreat from a maximalist posture following federal immigration agents killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this winter — and less hawkish Republicans and independents who think he’s gone too far in enforcement. After a somewhat more restrained approach for a few months on immigration enforcement, Mullin and Homan’s rhetoric suggests Trump is choosing the immigration hawks. That’s the kind of maneuvering that could set Trump up for worse press in the coming months, and could hurt him with voters outside his diehard base.

Zeeshan Aleem

Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.