Donald Trump’s Border Patrol has already failed in Charlotte | Editorial

Not long from now — maybe only until Friday — Donald Trump’s Border Patrol surge will roll out of Charlotte to take its terror to another city. It will leave behind destroyed lives and fractured communities, but it will have accomplished very little that meaningfully addresses our nation’s immigration issues. We suspect that never was really the goal.

What is? Perhaps the president is still hoping immigration can bring him a political win as his approval numbers head lower than even his worst first term levels. Maybe he’s hoping for a distraction from the relentless drip of Jeffrey Epstein and economic headlines.

None of which is happening. None of which will likely happen. Not because of Charlotte.

In fact, just two days in, Operation Charlotte’s Web already has failed.

With every unnecessarily smashed window, every sneer at due process, every federal agent’s smirk at those who are horrified by it all, Donald Trump continues to lose. He loses because this immigration enforcement surge is not really about immigration. If the president really wanted to solve our nation’s border issues, he would work toward broader solutions instead of rounding up whomever he can to hit a big number to show Americans.

Make no mistake, Los Angeles and Chicago and Charlotte are about the show. They’re about showing supporters that he’s willing to break rules to get things done and break wills to get what he wants. The progressive protests, the videos of immigrants tackled and dragged, the families torn apart? The willingness to inflict pain is part of his power. The cruelty, as it always has been, is the point.

But the problem for Trump is that it’s not working. His poll numbers continue to dive, and his numbers on immigration — once a strength — are now jarringly underwater. Just this month, an NBC poll showed that by a 54-44 margin, Americans think his sending “federal agents and National Guard troops to various cities around the country to fight crime and immigration” is not justified. An Associated Press/Norc poll showed 42 percent of Americans approved of his handling of immigration, a new low. AP/Norc also found that support among Hispanics, a key factor in Trump’s 2024 election win, has fallen 19 points since January.

It turns out that Americans, who have long had conflicting feelings about immigration, don’t much like the president’s approach to it. They don’t like being told one thing - in this case, that federal agents are going into cities to target dangerous criminals - then seeing something entirely different. They don’t like people, including American citizens, being confronted and detained simply because of the color of their skin. They don’t like masked federal agents gleefully stomping on our core values.

Want to know how bad this is for the president? Try to find many North Carolina Republicans, normally so ready to line up behind Trump, who’ve publicly supported what he’s done in Charlotte. They know that federal agents roaming the streets are not making our communities and businesses and lives better.

But we can.

To those frequenting businesses that are suffering because workers and customers fear leaving their homes, keep opening your wallets and hearts.

To those who video the pursuit and arrests of their neighbors, keep documenting and holding federal agents accountable — but please, do so safely.

To those who protest this reckless and dangerous exercise of authority, keep having your say but do so without violence and destructiveness. Do it the right way, because that’s the best way to accentuate the wrong.

Eventually, Donald Trump’s agents will roll out of Charlotte to another city he thinks won’t vote for him anyway, so that he can pretend to show Americans he’s doing something about immigration. But most Americans know exactly what he’s doing. He’s failing them, again.

This story was originally published November 17, 2025 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Donald Trump’s Border Patrol has already failed in Charlotte | Editorial."