Tonight in the candidates forum hosted by Matt Lauer, Donald Trump was asked about illegal aliens serving in the US military. For a man who wants to ban the immigration of Christian refugees from Syria, one would think this would be a no-brainer. But, no…

Trump: Undocumented person wanting to serve in military & stay in U.S. legally presents "very special circumstance" https://t.co/zocQY8t7x7

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 8, 2016

Via The Hill:

During a military-themed forum on NBC News Wednesday night, the GOP presidential nominee was asked whether he believes that an undocumented person who wants to serve in the U.S. armed forces deserves to stay in the country legally.

“I think when you serve in the armed forces, that’s a very special situation and I could see myself working that out, absolutely,” Trump replied.

The questioner, a woman who served in the military, clarified that she meant she was referring to an illegal immigrant who plans to serve, not already serving.

“Military’s a very special thing,” Trump said.

“If they plan on serving, if they get in, I would absolutely hold those people—”

Trump looked uncomfortable, and began to modulate his language, balancing the potential military service of illegal immigrants against the hardline immigration positions that have taken him so far in the race.

“Now we have to be very careful, we have to vet very carefully, everybody would agree with that,” Trump said.

“But the answer is it would be a very special circumstance, yes.”

This is gibberish.

There is no shortage of Americans volunteering for the Armed Forces and the number of people who can enlist each year is finite. For every illegal alien you accept you refuse enlistment to a US citizen. Does this make sense?

As these people are foreign nationals and not even legal US residents, you can’t deploy them to their home nations because they would not be covered by the Geneva Conventions. Best casing it, if captured they would be treated as mercenaries… which is a crime under international treaties. They would have family in those nations which would make them very vulnerable to pressure.

If you offer citizenship at the end of enlistment, haven’t you created yet another incentive for people to become illegal aliens?

Foreign nationals can’t receive a security clearance. That means you can’t work around encryption devices. This means you can’t use the unit radio. How useful is a soldier who can’t see your operations orders or use the radio?

This is nonsense and idiocy but those are the two key components of Trump’s immigration plan so it should be expected.