Another day, another Trump flip-flop — this time on taking Syrian refugees. Trump on Tuesday, to Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly:
I hate the concept of it, but on a humanitarian basis, with what’s happening, you have to [take some Syrian refugees].
Trump on Wednesday, to Fox News’s Sean Hannity:
Look, from a humanitarian standpoint, I’d love to help. But we have our own problems. We have so many problems that we have to solve.
Now, maybe that’s not quite a flip-flop; maybe it’s just a heavy-duty qualification to his statement from the evening immediately before. But either way, it’s yet another reminder that Trump really does not have policies; he has assertions. He squirts out declarative sentences, because he’s The Strong Guy Who Takes a Stand, but whether he declares one way or another is largely a matter of chance. Since he tends to reach positions by a process of guess-and-check, I assume this second statement is the one Trump will stick with. But is it what he actually thinks?
Who knows.