Trump win reflects 'pent-up rage for both political parties' on immigration: Ann Coulter
Democrats, Republicans 'have completely let the nation down on defending the borders'
If Donald Trump's election win over Hillary Clinton came as a shocker to some, it certainly didn't surprise Ann Coulter.
The American conservative writer and commentator told Peter Mansbridge in an interview on The National, which can be watched in full below, she predicted a Trump victory, crediting the win on his ability to tap into voters' "pent-up rage for both political parties, mostly over the issue of immigration."
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"I saw it coming, and I begged Republican politicians to take up the issue," said Coulter, whose book Adios America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole has been credited by some as a blueprint for Trump's proposed immigration policy. "Luckily I didn't have to do any begging with the great Donald Trump...he saw the thousand dollar bill lying on the sidewalk and said, 'Hey, I think I'll pick that up.'"
"Both political parties have completely let the nation down on defending the borders and protecting Americans."
Coulter believes Americans want immigration policies that benefit those who already live here.
"There are lots of people who do not live in the United States; billions, I believe. None of them have a constitutional right to move to America," she said.
"We've been thinking about the poor illegal aliens and the poor Muslim refugees who aren't living in this country already, but what about the people already here?" added Coulter. "Immigration is just a government policy like any other government policy, but it's the only one that politicians, and the media, don't even think about saying, 'This should be designed to help the people who are already here.'"
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For Coulter, that means immigration policy that approves applicants who are not only "smart and educated and not likely to go on welfare, but people who aren't likely to commit terrorist acts against us," arguing the president has the authority to determine who can and cannot enter the country based on "broad categories."
"If we want to, we can say only redheads, we can say no redheads," she said.
'There will be a general policy against Muslims'
On Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," Coulter stresses to not take his words literally.
"No one, I think, seriously understood him to mean that," she said. "As my friend Peter Thiel said, the media refused to take Trump seriously but they insist on taking him literally, whereas everyone else listening to him, like me, takes him seriously but not literally."
"I never thought it meant every single Muslim. This is pretending not to understand the English language in order to attack someone; it's been done to me my whole life," Coulter added. "It was never intended that way. Yes, there will be a general policy against Muslims, and yet there will be exceptions."
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Coulter said President-elect Trump will shift in tone, but not in policy.
"You speak differently when you're talking to your wife versus your employer versus your children versus your mother," she said.
"He probably won't be tweeting funny things as president of the United States anymore, but we're getting a wall, he's renegotiating trade deals and we're going to start deportations."
Watch The National's full interview with Ann Coulter below:
