In an interview published yesterday at Bloomberg, Trump was asked whether he would issue mass deportations of illegal immigrants. “No, I would not call it mass deportations,” he said.

That may reflect not so much a flip-flop as a return to his default position on broader questions relating to borders, free trade, and globalism. “We will have to leave borders behind and go for global unity when it comes to financial stability,” he wrote in an article at CNN three years ago. “The future of Europe, as well as of the United States, depends on a cohesive global economy.” He is running for president on a nationalist and protectionist message.