# Republican debate and Trump

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-debate-and-trump/988979>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Tags:** trump\
**Created:** [August 23, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-debate-and-trump/988979 "2023-08-23T15:20:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 108

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**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-debate-and-trump/988979/108 "2023-08-30T19:58:17Z")

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Continuing the discussion from [What if we went back to early 20th century immigration policy?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-went-back-to-early-20th-century-immigration-policy/989076):

> [@What if we went back to early 20th century immigration policy?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-went-back-to-early-20th-century-immigration-policy/989076/117):
>
> I think the most likely alternatives are: […] c. War with Mexico that includes, as common in war, the locking down of borders
> 
> The last is all too realistic and a reason why any swing voters here, uninterested in new wars, should vote Democratic this cycle. [Consider:](https://thehill.com/latino/4170236-gop-talk-of-military-action-in-mexico-sparks-dire-warnings/)
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate featured high-stakes policy disagreements on a range of issues from abortion to the environment — but found near-unanimous consensus on the idea of using American military force to fight drug smuggling and migration. . . .
> > 
> > Florida Gov. [Ron DeSantis](https://thehill.com/people/ron-desantis/)made the strongest pledge on the stage with his response to Fox News moderator [Martha MacCallum’s](https://thehill.com/people/martha-maccallum/)question asked whether he would support sending U.S. special forces into Mexico to “take out fentanyl labs, to take out drug cartel operations.”
> > 
> > “Yes. And I will do it on day one,” said DeSantis.
> > 
> > The governor’s eagerness reflects a growing normalization of the idea, which Republicans have embraced from the campaign trail to the halls of Congress.
> > 
> > Even more moderate GOP candidates such as former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have suggested support for some version of unilateral military action across the Rio Grande.

> [@What if we went back to early 20th century immigration policy?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-went-back-to-early-20th-century-immigration-policy/989076/118):
>
> Yep. As you pointed out DeSantis actually proposed it. Some of the Others kinda sorta went along.

My recollection is not, as _The Hill_ claims\* and **PhillyGuy** seems to imply, that DeSantis’s expressed support for unilateral military action in Mexico (such as we did in Pakistan for Bin Laden).

My recollection was that this remark was made in the context of cooperation with Mexico. I think Gov. Huchinson had just mentioned working with Mexican authorities to take down drug lords, and then Ms. Maccallum’s question to Gov. DeSantis was a continuation of that theme, like ‘what do you say to that, would you commit to sending U.S. special forces into Mexico?’. I may be misremembering.

~Max

\*_edited after actually reading the whole Hill article, not just the quoted blurb._

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