He didn’t misread anything. We can see now. It was never just about immigration. Trump, but more likely one/some of his sycophants, explained how hard-line immigration enforcement could help in removing political opposition with the help of a corrupt and stacked Supreme Court. The ability to revoke birthright citizenship so he can ship you off to whatever hellhole country he wants or you die in a concentration camp waiting to be deported, either is acceptable.

I think the only position on immigration Trump cares about is Stephen Miller’s. Also, someone who’s supposed to be term limited, and will definitely rig the election if he somehow runs again anyway, doesn’t really need to care about public opinion too much. It’s not like there seems to be much risk of anybody overthrowing the government.

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That’s not what the poll asked. Wording matters a lot in polls. The question was worded as approval of deporting undocumented people in general - not necessarily of how Trump is conducting it. Quite a number of people have bought into the false the right wing narratives that most undocumented people are [insert negative thing here]. Then when they see brutal operations that don’t reflect that narrative they start to oppose the operations - but not always realize the premise was false. When you poll on how Trump is conducting things, the approval falls a lot more

EDIT: which also isn’t to say that those myths can’t be busted, just that such a thing takes longer. Acknowledgement that the current operations are horrifying is the first step towards that