Axios’s Derek Thompson notes that almost all 2024 GOP candidates support building a border wall, and he writes that this is the “latest example of how Donald Trump has transformed the party and its approach to immigration”:

There are plenty of examples of many Republicans abandoning principles and policies because of Trump, but this isn’t one of them. The notion that Trump was going to get Mexico to pay for a wall was widely mocked in 2016 (and indeed, as Chris Christie recently noted, we haven’t seen one peso). Axios notes that Christie has changed his mind about a wall and that Nikki Haley said in 2016 a wall by itself was insufficient. But the policy of building a border barrier was a mainstream and bipartisan idea before Trump became its champion.

“First a Wall — Then Amnesty” was the headline of a 2006 Charles Krauthammer column. In 2006, a majority of Senate Democrats voted for the Secure Fence Act, which “mandated double-layer fencing between particular ports of entry from just east of San Diego all the way to the southern tip of Texas.” A few standout names who voted for the Secure Fence Act: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden. 

The fact that a border wall is now widely thought of as Trump’s idea is a great example of how polarizing of a figure he is and of how successful he is at branding.