RUSH: The bombshell news of the day is Trump’s immigration proposal: 1.8 million DREAMer/DACA kids getting amnesty in exchange for building a wall or making a move on building a wall. That’s the bombshell news today. Ted Cruz has come out. He’s having a cow over this. I can imagine some of the early Trump supporters who were all-in on this, you know, are calling TV networks begging to come on and appear. (interruption) What? What are you frowning about? (interruption)

Well, because! This is exactly opposite what Trump said he was gonna do. Although, do you recall — and I have to be honest about this. I mean, because the transcripts don’t lie — and with the new Rush Limbaugh app (chuckles), people can find out what I’ve said. Do you know that’s another thing. You have the full archive, the access to the full archive of Rush transcripts on the free side at RushLimbaugh.com, including with our new app, which you can find at the iOS App Store. Just search “Rush Limbaugh;” it’ll pop right up.

The app is free. You can join if you want, but you don’t have to. There’s gobs of stuff that’s available free. And one of those things is the archive of transcripts. I even said way, way back — it’s months now — that when the DREAMer kids came up, I said, “You know what? It may be…?” Now, the number we were talking about then, though, was 800,000. None of this 1.8 million — and it’s not even 1.8 million. It’s 3.6 million. But even I said, “You know what? I can see it,” and I remember Snerdley’s look of incredulity when I made the statement that I could see a deal.

You know, let the 800,000 DREAMers have their citizenship, goes and amnetize ’em and get the wall. I thought that would be a reasonable compromise. I said that. I can’t pretend that I didn’t. (interruption) Well, I don’t know about that because only heard about half of what you said, but the point that I’m making is that there are a lot of people… I wasn’t the only one. When the number was 800,000, a lot of people thought this would be a good compromise. But now that the number’s 1.8 million.

People don’t understand this, because Trump is coming off of a big win. He just shut these guys down. He embarrassed them. They’re the ones taking heat. The Democrats, Chuck You Schumer and Durbin, you gotta throw Lindsey Grahamnesty in there too. They lost! They caved on the shutdown, and they pulled all of their immigration demands off the table and are willing to make just a straight budget deal now. Now here comes Trump, “You know what we can do? We can give amnesty to 1.8 million,” and they sent Stephen Miller up to Congress to do it.

There’s a reason. Trump was over in Davos being treated like a movie star. He even said so. He said, “This is bigger than the Academy Awards. I’m bigger than Hollywood! I showed up over here and there’s more photographers here than there is at the Academy Awards.” And the Drive-Bys are beside themselves. Stand by. Two sound bites, stand by, Christiane Amanpour and Jim Acosta. They cannot believe what they saw. They’re devastated that Trump was applauded, heralded, welcomed, treated like a rock star. They can’t believe it.

At any rate, they send Stephen Miller up there, who is the hawk on the staff. He is the no-amnesty, no-illegal immigration any time ever guy, and they send help you up there with the message that 1.8 million kids get amnesty for a wall. Folks, stop and think. Simpson-Mazzoli in 1986 was either 2.6 or 2.8 million were granted amnesty and we were told that was it. But again, when I was advocating for it, it was 800,000.

Now it’s twice that, and that doesn’t even get to the real number is more like 3.6 million — and then when you start adding the chain? Now, supposedly a part of this is that there is no chain. So whatever the number agreed to is gonna be the final number. But there are people who think, “This is not what Trump promised. This is… No, no, no. Trump was not gonna do this. It’s specifically why Trump was elected.” So we will have to see. I’m sure that we will be hearing from many in the audience today.

It’s Open Line Friday, who are members of the Trump base. Who elected Trump. I think the immigration issue was one of the top two reasons that people voted for Trump. Now, what was it? Speak a little slower and further away from the microphone. What did I say during the campaign? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Mmm… (interruption) Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. (interruption) Okay, I did. I did. But that… I questioned him on the wall, but what’s that got to the with the DREAMers? (interruption) Well, theoretically. Theoretically.

That’s true. During the campaign. I ran afoul of some of you in the audience during the campaign. You may not remember this because many do not remember running afoul with me. I mean, it happens, but people quickly forget it. But I did ask you how many of you think this business of building the wall is real, how many of you think the wall is really gonna get built? And we had answers from all over the spectrum. And I, since I can’t hide behind… I mean, the transcripts are out there. I said, “I think it’s symbolic.”

I said, “I’m not sure the wall is ever really gonna get built,” and boy, did I hear from you! (snorts) “Yes, it is! That’s the number one. The wall is gonna get built. Boy, you’re wrong, if you think it’s only a symbolic thing. Trump is serious.” I even heard from the editrix of The Limbaugh Letter who told me, “If you think that the wall is an unserious things that just means something symbolically, then you don’t know Trump as well as you think you do.” I mean, I heard from you. The idea that the wall was not gonna really be built, that it was just there to symbolize how tough Trump was gonna be.

Many of you people said, “No way! That wall is gonna be built.” So it is, apparently, if this deal happens. You know, it still has to go through lots of hoops. Well, the hoops are it has to go through the House, and any number of things can happen when you start — and you got Graham and you’ve got Cruz opposing it. Votes in the Senate are crucial. What else was I…? (interruption) Well, okay. That’s a good point. That is a good point. The citizenship for these DREAMers is not immediate, in terms of the numbers we’re talking about here, 1.8 million.

The citizenship (being able to vote) does not happen instantly. It happens in years. And that’s another thing that I prepared and I said a number of times, I will support amnesty for all 50 million, however many million they are if they can’t vote for 25 years. I said, “Any Democrat listening, if you will go for that then I’ll sign up with your amnesty plan right now. They can’t vote… I’ll even make it 15 years. They can’t vote for 15 years,” and not a single Democrat took me up on it because the whole idea is to have ’em vote tomorrow, as soon as they can.

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RUSH: Trump’s proposal here has got everybody flipped upside down. They’re mad. I mean, some avid Trump supporters are really, really mad about it, as I knew would be the case. This is why he got elected, the belief that he would not be doing this. This number… I don’t care what it is, 800,000; now they’re saying 3.6 million. This is not… Folks, if this happens, this is gonna be chain migration. I don’t care, you’re gonna be… It won’t be long before we’re talking 10 years of that number being reached. There’s clearly… If Trump goes by the wayside on this, there isn’t… Trump’s the one guy standing in the way of this.

There aren’t enough Republicans who oppose this. The Democrats all want it. A whole bunch of Republicans want it. Trump is the bulwark here, and if he goes south on this… Here’s another thing. What, it’s $25 billion, whatever, for the wall. What happens if the Democrats do win say the House in November? You can kiss the $25 billion for the wall good-bye. Of course, you could say that about any issue. That’s not a reason for not doing something.

But it is a reason for not doing something that create or enhance the risk of losing the House, and this might! So it has people on edge because this, again, is probably in the top two/three reasons that Trump was elected. The people that voted for Trump and stand by Trump during all of the challenges that Trump puts them through, it’s because of this: Open borders, illegal immigration, and automatic citizenship and amnesty is the end of this country as founded.

That is the ultimate attack on our culture and on our society. Because there is no insistence on the part of those supporting amnesty that there be any assimilation whatsoever. There’s no requirement. There’s no demand. There’s not even a request. There’s not even a hope among the Democrats and many of the open border Republicans that these new arrivals actually become Americans and learn what American citizenship really means and become members of the distinct and unique American culture.

These people believe that American culture’s the problem in the world. “It’s too restrictive. It’s too moral. It’s too conservative. It needs to open up and needs to be more tolerant,” and by being more “tolerant,” we need to let people who don’t like this country in here because they are justified in their hatred and dislike for America because of the way America has treated them all these many, many centuries or what have you. I mean, it’s a dangerous thing.

But then there’s another side of this that I want to run by you, and let me put it this way. Let’s look at it Trump sitting down with Mueller. Now, everybody in the world says — including I. I’ve said, “It’s a mistake. Don’t do this. You’re setting yourself up for a process crime. You’re setting yourself up for a perjury trap. Don’t do this. No lawyer worth his salt would let Trump do this.” Like, do you think the chickens union would allow the chicken leadership to sit down with Colonel Sanders?

There’s no way!

There’s no way the chickens union would allow chicken leadership to sit down with Colonel Sanders. And people look at this and say, “Why in the world would you let Trump sit down with Mueller?” Well, on the other side of that, there are people who say, “Trust Trump instincts. Trump has come out ahead on every one of these things where we thought was toast,” and if Trump wants to talk to Mueller… The thinking goes, “Trump is not the idiot that the media portrays. Trump is not the idiot that they like to tell you he is, that he’s craftier and smarter.”

And so you ought to trust his instincts. If he wants to talk to Mueller, go ahead. Nothing to worry about here. It’s not the same thing as the chicken sitting down with Colonel Sanders, who no doubt would show up with an axe that would be hidden behind his side of the table. The chickens wouldn’t get out of there alive, much less go to jail. So there are people who think, “Rush, on this immigration business, remember how everybody reacted after that 55-minute meeting that was televised.

Trump said, “I’ll sign whatever you bring me. We can do this without the people in this room,” and then two days later Trump blows ’em up and sends ’em leaving the White House in sheer anger and panic, and they didn’t win anything.” And people… I’m seeing this in the email. “Rush, there’s more to this than meets the eye. Trump offering 1.8 million…

There’s something more to this, and you gotta trust Trump.” I’m getting these emails. “You gotta trust Trump. “All these knee-jerk reactions, people that have had them in the past have been proven to be wrong, such as those who thought that Trump caved and blew everything in that 55-minute televised meeting in the Cabinet Room with Republican and Democrat leaders.”

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RUSH: Okay. I have my alternate theory on Trump’s proposal of amnesty for 1.8 million DREAMers, and I want to combine that with what seems to be the reaction from Trump supporters and quasi-Trump supporters of genuine anger and disappointment. I think there’s two ways to look at this. I’ll run through them both. But it’s Open Line Friday. I want to get a call in. I always try to do that in the first hour.

So we will open the monolog segment of the next hour in just a few minutes with my dual A-B, side-by-side analysis of what may be going on here with Trump’s deal. He’s either screwing up big time or something else is going on, and I want to explore what is the possible something else that is going on.

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RUSH: Let me move on to Grove City, Pennsylvania, next. Erin, you’re next. She’s 19. Great to have you on the program. How you doing?

CALLER: Hi, Mr. Limbaugh. How are you?

RUSH: Fine. Really great.

CALLER: Thank you. Thank you so much for taking my call.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: I just wanted to tell you about my opinion of Donald Trump. So while I think President Trump has done some great things for this country, I also think he’s done some things that are contrary to America’s health, and also his leverage in Congress. Though I think he does seem like the ideal, like, non-career politician. Like, he already has wealth, he already has power in the world. So therefore he won’t really have incentives for reelection, I think he’s making way too many concessions, especially this early on on such important issues like this amnesty deal with the Democrats. And I’m just concerned for the direction that this is going.

RUSH: Well, you’re not alone. I’m getting emails from members of my audience who are very, very let down over Trump’s proposal to grant amnesty to 1.8 million DACA kids, this latest proposal he’s made. I’m sure that’s what you’re talking about. I have a theory about it, which I was gonna be done by now, but I spent more time with Rachel.

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RUSH: So, Erin, are you still with us?

CALLER: Yes. Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: Okay. Now, I want to run something by you, and I’m glad you held on because I want to run it by you with you on the phone. I have an alternate theory about what’s going on, and it’s rooted in — well, a number of things. But it’s rooted in what happened when we had the 55-minute televised negotiation between Trump and Republican and Democrat leaders in the Cabinet Room over immigration, and after that meeting there were people who thought, “Oh, my God. Trump has caved!

“He just said he’s sign anything they send him. Oh, my God! Dianne Feinstein proposed a clean DACA bill, and he said he would go for it! Oh my God!” People were panicking. People were feeling, “Oh, no! That can’t be!” And it turned out that that was not what was going on. Even I, El Rushbo, pointed out that that meeting had nothing to do with immigration, and it dawned on Dick Durbin and Steny Hoyer about halfway through that they were being used as props here for Trump to do what?

Trump was taking on the allegations made about him in the Wolff book that he didn’t want to be president, that he had Alzheimer’s, dementia, couldn’t read, didn’t read, didn’t want to be there, couldn’t talk to people, was basically an idiot. So he does this, televises 55 minutes of it, and just blows to smithereens the allegations in the Wolff book — and we haven’t heard about the Wolff book since! The Wolff book fell off the cliff.

It is not being talked about at all since that televised meeting. So here we are after Trump took Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to the cleaners on the negotiations to shut down the government. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats — according to everybody — caved. So now Trump, out of that, comes around and offers an amnesty to 1.8 million DREAMer kids in exchange for $25 billion to build the wall? Here’s what I think is possible, Erin, and all the rest of you.

The portion of the Trump base that gets angry every time there’s a report that says Trump caves on immigration (which is what this news is basically saying), get mad because they’re frightened, because they know how important this issue is. And they know that Trump is the only guy that ran for the presidency that could possibly stand in the way of this and literally save our culture and country. But here’s an alternative theory, based on the fact that I don’t think Trump’s caved.

And I don’t think Trump was unserious with his statements at all of those rallies on the wall and on immigration. I don’t think anybody’s gotten to him and changed his mind. Because he’s made an offer here. Have you all paid attention to the Democrats reacting to this? Have you noticed that they’re not happy? Have you noticed the Democrats are rejecting this? Dick Durbin says that this shows that Trump is unserious, that Trump is mean-spirited, that Trump is willing to use and play with the lives of innocent children.

Here’s Nancy Pelosi. Grab sound bite No. 27. Here’s Pelosi reacting to Trump’s proposal to grant amnesty to 1.8 million DREAMer kids.

PELOSI: The plan is a campaign to make America white again. It’s a plan that says over 50% of the current legal education will be cut back, that many people will be sent out of the country. If you read through it, you’re thinking, “Do they not understand that immigration has been the constant reinvigoration of America?”

RUSH: Donald Trump, or somebody in there, knew that this deal would be rejected. I believe it is possible that this whole deal… You might call it a trick. You might call it a grand strategy. But I think it was offered knowing that the Democrats would reject this — after which, what happens? Trump can say, “Hey, I offered it. I’m trying to meet ’em halfway. We’re trying to do something for the kids, and once again it’s the Democrats who say they’re not interested! It’s the Democrats who are walking away.

“It’s the Democrats who cannot accept this seemingly generous offer from the president of the United States.” Chuck Schumer has already rejected it, you just heard Pelosi reject it, and Dick Durbin has rejected it. How many of you were thinking that the Democrats would glom onto this and sign up for it instantly because this would translate to Trump losing? You have to notice that they’re rejecting this. Now, you might say, “Yeah, because they don’t want 1.8! They want 3.6 million. They want 15 million!”

Well, they’re never gonna get that. They’re falling… I think they’re falling into this trap again, and Durbin is being made a fool of… I better stop. I actually should shut up here. I may be giving away too much of the game here to these dingbats. You know, they listen here when they want to. The Democrats have already started smearing Trump’s proposal as white supremacist policy? We’re talking about the DREAMer kids!

Now, part of Trump’s offer does require meritocracy, and that’s what the Democrats can’t stand. That’s another thing. Donald Trump is saying, “We want the best people coming into our country. We want people who love America. We want people who can support themselves. We want people who are gonna become American. We want people are gonna grow our economy.” And what are the Democrats saying? “The hell with that! That’s white supremacy! We need the invigoration that our country gets from immigration.”

They want their permanent underclass. They want the current illegal crop to be granted amnesty. They want nothing more than a never-ending group of people in total dependency, and they are rejecting this. They’ve just been offered a deal that grants amnesty to the children — that’s their number one constituency group, 1.6 or 1.8 million of ’em — and they’re turning it down. They cannot accept it. This is a reasonable offer that the Democrats have to refuse because their prime constituency group is not seen by them as benefiting.

Trump’s talking meritocracy, Trump’s talking granting amnesty to the most qualified, and for further immigration, granting the most qualified, the most desirous people that love America and want to come here and be great Americans. We need more people like that. The Democrats are rejecting this, and I think it was easy to predict that they would. What did I say yesterday? The Democrats have become irrelevant, folks. They lost the election. They’ve become irrelevant.

It’s issues like this that make them think they have relevance again. It’s issues like this that make them think they can be heard again. Look, they don’t control the House, they don’t control the White House, they don’t control the Senate. Elections are about who wins. Who wins gets to do what they want. There’s no reason Trump has to negotiate with these people, and yet he’s presented a generous offer, which is — and another thing.

This generous offer from Trump looks like he has really moved a lot. So to your casual, low-information voter, it looks like Trump is willing to do whatever. He’s really making a big move to compromise. And yet again, the Democrats are rejecting it out of hand with the usual insults of Trump, the allegations that this is nothing more than a secret plan to make America white supremacist again. He took away their shutdown card.

They can’t try that again. Before this number was even offered, what happened? Schumer made a big show out of removing the $25 billion in funding for the wall. But what wasn’t reported — I mentioned this either yesterday or the day before — what wasn’t reported is the Democrats went further. They caved again! Schumer and Durbin announced that at the next budget deal, which is now two weeks away, immigration wasn’t gonna be a part of it at all.

They’re gonna strictly come up with a deal to fund the government and do immigration later. They’re not gonna try to combine it ’cause they got shellacked. Now, if all you do is watch CNN or read the New York Times, you’re not gonna have this perspective. But I’m telling you, they got shellacked, and they are now in the process of shellacking themselves. They are rejecting this. So they don’t have their shutdown card. That’s been taken away from them by Trump. So what do they have? They’ve got nothing left except more tantrums and an eventual surrender.

Which is exactly what happened the last time Trump ran this play. Now, we’ll see if I’m right. Some of you might say, “Rush, that’s really rose-colored glasses.” It’s not rose-colored glasses, folks. I’m not saying all this with hope. I’m telling you I think this may be what’s really going on, and all I’m doing is observing. How many of you thought the Democrats…? When you first heard them, how many thought the Democrats would accept this happily and claim victory over Trump?

I never thought they would. It’s not enough, and it’s not their constituency being offered amnesty! But the very fact that they are rejecting it, I am thinking, may be what the purpose of this actually is. So once again it’s Trump showing himself to be generous, accommodating, flexible, pro-America — all of it in one fell swoop — and what do we get but temper tantrums as a result? So, Erin, I’ve had you on the phone listening to that. What do you think now? You were afraid that Trump was caving and that he was losing leverage and making too many concessions. What do you think now?

CALLER: So I will say that I was very surprised when I heard that this amnesty deal that he is proposing — and what you’re saying really does make sense now.

RUSH: If I’m right. Ha! (laughing)

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: We just have to wait and see.

CALLER: (laughing) So could President Trump also be trying to show these Democrats — show their colors — to the voters, to their constituents?

RUSH: Yes. Yes. Exactly.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: By being inflexible, too demanding… They’re being offered what they claim they want; they’re turning it down. Then make allegations: White supremacy! What’d they say about the tax cut? “Nothing but crumbs, it’s not real, it’s not gonna help people.” Every time they open their mouths, Erin, they are embarrassingly wrong about things.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: Really are. Okay, look. Ran out of time here, but since you were so smart and since you have remained so open to all possibilities, and since you’re a young woman, I can imagine that… Well, I’m not gonna imagine. Would you like a new iPhone?

CALLER: That would be incredible.

RUSH: I feel in the mood to give iPhones away today.

CALLER: Thank you very much.

RUSH: You young people inspire this in me. Okay. So what kind of phone do you have now?

CALLER: I have a 6s.

RUSH: You have an iPhone 6s? Perfect. So you know what would be perfect for you is the iPhone X. It’s the same size, just slightly bigger than your 6s, but it’s all screen. It’s like an inch bigger in screen than what you have on your 6s.

CALLER: Oh, wow.

RUSH: Yeah. Who’s your carrier?

CALLER: Thank you very much.

RUSH: Who’s your carrier?

CALLER: AT&T.

RUSH: AT&T. So here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna get an unlocked iPhone. There’s no SIM card in it. So it will work with any carrier you have. So what you do is you can either take these two phones to AT&T and have them transfer your SIM card and get your number put on the new one —

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: — or you can do it yourself, whichever way you feel more comfortable. And then just transfer your data using Quick Setup from the 6s to the iPhone X, and, bam! You’re off and running. But the key thing is, if it’s AT&T, you take it and you tell ’em it was a gift and that there’s no SIM card in it ’cause it’s unlocked and it’ll work on their service.

CALLER: Okay. Sounds good.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: Thank you so much.

RUSH: Yeah, right. Now, don’t hang up. We gotta get your address. We’ll get this out to you next week. We package it up in a whole cute little bundle of stuff here. So look for it sometime next week.