Trump's evangelical advisers abandon him for threatening to deport children

Donald Trump overwhelmingly won the evangelical vote in 2016.

And yet his recent behavior in the immigration debate, to the point of open hostage-taking and a looming government shutdown, has caused members of his own council of evangelical advisers to snub him in a big way.

Several of Trump’s religious advisers — including Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, who led a prayer at Trump’s inauguration — met in a news conference in support of the young immigrants with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, The Hill reports.

“You have always taken the lead. Your commitment to the immigrant community to the ‘Dreamers’ is second to none. So America is in a better place because of your prophetic leadership on this matter,” Rodriguez told Pelosi, adding, “We can’t continue to play politics with 800,000 human beings created in the image of God. It is morally reprehensible.”

That is decidedly not the position of Trump, who, although he has claimed to support the plight of the DREAMers and said he does not really want to deport them, has brought them to the brink of disaster.

It was Trump who terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and is now fighting all the way up to the Supreme Court to keep it dead.

It was Trump who rejected a bipartisan immigration deal that would permanently enshrine their protection in law, even though the deal also would have let him build his wall.

And it is because of Trump that Republican leaders in Congress are trying to take the rights of DREAMers off the table as they fight among themselves to pass a continuing resolution.

When Trump’s evangelical allies cross the aisle to share a position with Nancy Pelosi, you know it’s serious. Trump needs to figure out where he stands — and he ought to stand on the side of protecting kids.