Trump/King 2016

Reading a transcript of Donald Trump’s announcement speech or listening to him double-down on his immigration positions, you would be forgiven for thinking it was a Steve King floor speech.

King has a Ph.D. in xenophobia and a knack for articulating right where his party stands on immigration (far, far outside the mainstream). He also happens to be a congressman from the all-important presidential state of Iowa, and for that, he has the ear of his party’s presidential contenders. Just this past January, the cantaloupe-calved-conspiracy-theorist brought almost the entire field to kiss his ring in Iowa. Scott Walker called it “an honor.” Chris Christie called him a “friend.”

But since The Donald rode an escalator down into the circus that is the GOP primary, candidates for the White House have been worried sick about the damage he’ll will do to their brand. That’s a reasonable calculation, but hardly a principled one. The fact remains, the only thing different than Trump and GOP immigration spokesman Steve King’s views on immigration is a cold Iowa day early next year.