“This assumes illegals would still be viable in a future Trump Presidency.”
By the same token, this $10 minimum wage assumes that no illegals exist to do it for cheap(er). In 2 years, it will be $15, because “we gotta feed our family”. And then $20, because things are “more expensive now”. And then $30, because that is what we expect “in this economy”. Then a “living wage”, because we “cannot make ends meet”. Then a basic income. Then a guaranteed wage. Then an egalitarian economy, comrades.
While I agree with you, that the minimum wage was and is a terrible policy, campaigning against it now is not a strategy.
I think Trump said just enough to put the minimum wage, as a wedge issue, away.