Today it’s four years since Donald Trump came down the escalator and announced that he was running for President. James Kirkpatrick reported it here at the time in Trump Announces Run for President, Slammed By THINK PROGRESS For Mentioning Immigration.[June 16, 2015]

ThinkProgress called this part of the announcement going “full nativist.”

“When do we beat Mexico at the border?” Trump asked the crowd at his announcement at his namesake Trump Tower in New York City. “They are not our friend, believe me…The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems…When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They are not sending you. They are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs and they are bringing crime, and they’re rapists.”

“Some, I assume are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we are getting.”

All true (see links added by me) except for the rhetorical flourish about “good people” at the end.

Matthew Richer had predicted this here two months before that: For Better Or Worse, Donald Trump May Be The Only Immigration Patriot Running For President, April 12, 2015.

We’ve had some interesting times since then, but don’t forget that Trump’s victory came from doing what we’ve been telling candidates—of both parties—to do since the 1990’s.