Boy, I really wish the first word people had used about this entire change of position had not been “softening.” That would have really saved us all a lot of, well, this:

Trump on his immigration ‘softening’: “I don’t think it’s a softening. I’ve had people say it’s a hardening” https://t.co/r6M3i6G1Sq

— CNN (@CNN) August 26, 2016

Allow me to respond on behalf of… well, everyone:

Sigh. I suppose in the way of serious commentary I should offer that less than three days ago, Trump himself called it a softening. He used the word himself. So yeah, he does think it’s a softening. And no one at all thinks it’s a hardening. No one has come up to Trump and said that. At all.