The unstoppable force meets the immovable object

David L. Nevins, Tribune News Service

There’s an old saying about what happens when the unstoppable force meets an immovable object, a situation where two equally powerful and contradictory forces are in opposition to each other.

Such a situation is rapidly unfolding between two powerful forces within the Republican Party on the all-important issue of immigration. This issue played no small part in Donald Trump’s election to a second term as president. Throughout his campaign, Trump promised to sign deportation orders on day one of being back in the White House, and all indications are that Trump has no intention of backing off if recent comments by “border czar” Tom Homan are any indication of what lies ahead.

“What price do you put on national security? I don’t think it has a price tag,” Homan said. “What price do you put on the thousands of American moms and dads who buried their children? You want to talk about family separation; they buried their children because their children were murdered by illegal aliens that weren’t supposed to be here. I don’t put a price on that. I don’t put a price on national security. I don’t put a price on American lives.”

Homan further defended the mass deportations’ $86 billion price tag, saying it would save American taxpayers money in the future and went on to say:

“As far as US children, that’s going to be a difficult situation because we’re not going to change your US citizenship,” he said. “Which means they’re going to be put in a halfway house or they can stay at home and wait for the officers to get the travel arrangements and come back and get the family. You know the best thing to do for a family is to self-deport themselves.”

Yet this seemingly immovable position of MAGA deportation enthusiasts who want “mass deportation” is already being met by the immovable object of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the high-tech billionaires who will be leading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Shortly before Christmas, a battle erupted between Trump supporters over the comments Ramaswamy and Musk made in which they made it clear that immigration policy must have exceptions for highly skilled workers. This position is counter to the position of many MAGA supporters who are against this because they believe these workers, whether skilled or not, will take jobs away from American workers.

The internal battle has already begun as fellow Trump supporters accused the tech billionaire of censorship on December 27th after several prominent conservatives who had criticiced Musk’s views on immigration lost access to premium features on Musk’s social media app, X. What is developing is an intriguing and complex confluence of two diametrically opposed forces, one economic and one cultural. Many Trump followers support him primarily for economic reasons, while others care more about the cultural issues that Trump has campaigned on. This unusual alliance, one economic and one cultural, will likely result in some contentious infighting and unpredictable outcomes.

The forces represented by Musk and Ramaswamy are driven by a focus on the advancement of technology, which is dependent on a greater reliance on globalisation and the immigration of highly skilled workers. This is totally counter to the cultural beliefs of many MAGA enthusiasts. For the cultural wing of the MAGA faithful, it is the deeply rooted religious values, traditions, and opposition to what they call “Woke” culture that draws them to support Trump. These cultural supporters are focused on resistance to progressive social issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. They believe that only by preserving these “traditional” values will America be made great again.