Donald Trump has upended the GOP presidential primary process and turned it into the most entertaining reality show yet.  If The Donald’s road to the White House is blocked—either by the Republican elites or by his own tendency to go too far—and he returns to TV land, he’ll have a hard time topping this one.

While he has enunciated the principles of Trumpismo as they apply to a number of issues—trade (he’s against it), the welfare state (he’s for it), foreign intervention (“We gotta take their oil!”)—Trump has surged in the polls by railing against the invasion of illegal aliens on our southern border.  He wants to build a wall—one presumably embossed with a giant T at regularly spaced intervals—in order to keep the invaders out.  And, yes, he considers the immigrants who have been pouring in from south of the Rio Grande to be the equivalent of a conquering army, raping and pillaging its way across the devastated American landscape.

Trump’s troops remind me of those Japanese soldiers who, isolated in the jungles of Borneo, never got wind of the emperor’s surrender.  They’re still fighting a war that ended decades ago—in this case, more than four decades ago, when Teddy Kennedy introduced the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.  That bill, passed overwhelmingly by Congress with support from both parties, opened the floodgates by vastly increasing immigration, especially from what we used to call the Third World.  The Kennedy bill abolished caps on the influx from countries previously limited by law and introduced the practice of chain migration: If one member of a family could get his foot in the open door, then his parents, uncles, nieces, nephews, and third cousins would soon follow—all of it legal.

In the late 70’s refugee programs loosened up entry standards, and the immigration lobby began to come into its own.  In 1986 there was a general amnesty, again spearheaded by Senator Kennedy, endorsed by none other than Ronald Reagan.  Immigration restrictionists were tossed a few crumbs with provisions that supposedly strengthened enforcement and sealed the border, but there were so many loopholes in the legislation that millions slipped through.  A lottery system, which handed out 50,000 green cards annually, followed in 1990—resulting in a 35-percent increase in the rising tide.  No fewer than seven separate amnesty programs, some aimed at particular nationalities—Nicaragua and Haiti among them—passed Congress in the 1990’s.

Now that the barn door has been open for so long, there are anywhere from 12 to 21 million illegals in the country.  So what does Donald Trump propose to do about it?  He wants to deport each and every one of these people, including children born here.  That this will never happen because it can never happen is irrelevant for Trump’s purposes—and that leads us to the next question.  What are Trump’s purposes, beyond inflating his gargantuan ego to world-historic proportions?

According to the Washington Post,

Former president Bill Clinton had a private telephone conversation in late spring with Donald Trump at the same time that the billionaire investor and reality-television star was nearing a decision to run for the White House, according to associates of both men.  Four Trump allies and one Clinton associate familiar with the exchange said that Clinton encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party and offered his own views of the political landscape.

Move along, folks.  Nothing to see here.

We are supposed to accept Trump’s expressed admiration for the Clintons as mere celebrity solidarity.  As for his contributions to their political campaigns and their “foundation,” and their attendance at one of his weddings—that’s just The Donald.  “I give to everybody,” he explains, and in return, he gets “access.”

Of course, access is a two-way street.

The editors of National Review and The Weekly Standard may be horrified at the sight of The Donald stealing their party from under their noses, but the emptying of the conservative mind that took place under their aegis made Trumpismo possible.  While they ignored or actively encouraged a de facto open-borders policy, what the elites disdain as “nativism” was building, and today it roars through the mouth of a false-flag candidate who knows perfectly well that it’s too late to do anything about it.

Or perhaps Trump is so hypnotized by his own narcissism that he can no longer distinguish fantasy from reality.  In any case, it makes no difference: A giant wrecking ball has been lobbed at the GOP presidential primary, and the Clintons cannot be anything but delighted by the sight of it.