My problem is more, if he panders so obviously here, is he pandering to all of us?
Well, I can’t say it hasn’t crossed my mind. We should always hold all candidates feet to the fire if they start to get wobbly. I’m still leaning towards viewing this as a case of Trump getting too anxious to win this early and so has made this move to try to seal the deal with Iowa. If that’s the case, then I view it as a mistake and totally unnecessary. Even if it meant losing Iowa, he should have taken the high road. He’d still likely win easily even without it.
So, very likely he got impatient and allowed the prospect of an Iowa win to cause him to take the wrong side of this issue. If that’s what this is all about, then it’s an example of a personal flaw of his - allowing the prospect of victory to cause him to compromise on principle. That’s a negative I might be able to live with if it’s rare and doesn’t effect his position on the more important issues of the day. We’ll see.
To be fair, this isn’t a flip-flop. It’s just an instance of him taking the wrong position for political expediency. Bad, but not necessarily an indication that he’s not going to do what he’s said he would regarding immigration, trade defecits, etc. We’ll have to see.