Editor of The Bulwark Argues Dems Shouldn’t Oppose Trump’s Deportations Because Latinos Aren’t Voting for Them Anymore

Jonathan Last, editor of The Bulwark, argued that Democrats should refrain from opposing President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to ramp up deportation efforts because of Latinos’ shift toward Republicans in recent years.

In a post on BlueSky on Sunday, Last reacted to the following excerpt from a ProPublica story about Rosa, an undocumented immigrant whose children voted for Trump in the 2024 election:

Rosa said she is glad her children voted for Trump. She’s not too worried about deportation, although she asked to be identified solely by her first name to reduce the risk. She believes Trump wants to deport criminals, not people like her who crossed the border undetected in the 1990s but haven’t gotten in trouble with the law. “They know who has been behaving well and who hasn’t been,” she said.

On the heels of reading about Rosa, Last urged Democrats not to lift a finger to stop the coming wave of deportations because it’s “madness” to “help people” who don’t vote for your party en masse.

“Democrats should spend exactly zero political capital stopping any Trump deportation efforts,” wrote Last. “It is madness to spend capital trying to help people who are no longer a major part of your electoral coalition.”

On X, several conservatives marveled at the about-face from what many Democrats have presented as a principled opposition to more stringent immigration enforcement.

“wait, what were the political benefits of defending Biden’s border policy? I thought it was just about being a Good Person. There was a political angle? That sounds like a conspiracy theory,” mused The Washington Free Beacon‘s Joe Gabriel Simonson.

“Holy crap…lol…just saying the quiet part out loud, I guess,” observed RedState’s Bonchie.

“Conspiracy theory: Jon Last is acting as a deep cover agent for Donald Trump to harm the reputation of and delegitimize the entire Never-Trump movement in the eyes of the left and the political center,” suggested another popular right-of-center account. “If I’m wrong and he isn’t what would he be doing differently, I ask you?”