Many here won’t believe you..but I do.
Ivanka and jared will try to pull him to the left.
Immigration is one where he will lose the next election if he caves
It’s hard for me to believe it wasn’t said (it could have been said to throw them off or as a trial balloon) because he was in the room with these anchors and said it. I don’t think they would all come out and point blank lie. There are things that are happening that could lead one to think that Trump is considering moderating. For example, he keeps emphasizing that he’s only getting “the bad ones” out, and General Kelly told McAullife that was all they are deporting.
Trump is in a tough situation because if he really lets ICE deport those here illegally, then the media will run story after story of people being deported, broken families, etc. He also has people who voted for him that held their nose or selected him as the lesser evil - people who are either GOP establishment types or moderates. I’ve seen some of these people in interviews and online, and their support is fickle. They are the type who will be more inclined to believe media reports and not vote for Trump next cycle. It’s a calculation over whether or not he can keep his base by moderating on this issue and hold on to these voters OR focus on keeping his base and hope he can keep enough GOPe/moderate types to vote for him.
As you said, Ivanka/Jared often voted Democrat are definitely more liberal than her father. Then you have the Priebus wing of the White House and GOP establishment. The media is, like I said, going to write as many articles sympathetic to illegal immigration as possible. Politically speaking, for a guy constantly getting killed, it would be simpler to pass “comprehensive immigration reform.” That said, the left will always hate him, the media will never like him, some of his base will leave, and he’ll have to hope that brokering a compromise on immigration will get him enough moderates and keep enough of the base for 2020. IMO, it would kill him with the base.