Trump's shameful family separations have GOP fretting about midterms

Republicans are once again at the mercy of Trump’s erratic behavior.

His cruel decision to implement a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy that’s ripping families apart is creating huge political worries for a party that’s typically too scared to criticize the White House.

Whipping up Trump’s white nationalist base with racist rhetoric about immigrants who “infest our country” might have worked in the past, but using that language when more than two dozen Republicans are trying win House races in districts Hillary Clinton won in 2016 could clearly hurt Republicans.

One GOP operative told CNN the issue is “hitting home” with voters and “it’s not just affecting border districts but suburban women as well.”

The backlash over Trump’s family separations comes just as many vulnerable Republicans in the House were trying to clean up Trump’s earlier immigration mess — his irrational decision in 2017 to end the Dreamer program, which protected young children who were brought to the U.S. by undocumented parents.

Fearful that the attack on immigrant children would hurt them in November, nearly two dozen Republicans, many of them from swing districts, were desperately trying to schedule a vote in the House so they could be on the record supporting the Dreamers.

Now, Trump has dumped a far bigger political problem in the laps of those same worried Republicans. His policy to rip apart families is incredibly unpopular with the American people and universally denounced by religious leaders and human rights advocates

And the campaign fear isn’t limited to swing states: Republicans across the country are spooked politically even in deeply red southern states.

Maybe it’s because the inhumane policy is tanking with independent voters, not just Democrats. In Texas, Republicans such as Rep. Will Hurd and Sen. Ted Cruz are clearly nervous about the November implications.

Trump’s rash immigration decisions are coming back to bite the GOP.