N.Y. Times hints Trump hiding true stance on immigration

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump shared this photo of himself signing "a recent tax return" (Photo: Twitter)

The New York Times reportedly has an audio tape of an off-the-record meeting its staff held with Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump in early January – a tape that could contain bombshell information about the billionaire's true intentions on immigration.

At least, that's according to one writer with Buzzfeed News, a news outlet that hasn't exactly supported the Trump campaign in recent months.

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On top of that, the New York Times has a good explanation for not releasing the full audio of its recent interview with Trump – because some of it was conducted under the label of off-the-record.

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Still, Buzzfeed, citing conversations with those in the know of the interview, has raised questions about its content and suggested the Trump campaign could be in a bit of trouble if the entire audio recording were released.

In a piece entitled, "Donald Trump Secretly Told The New York Times What He Really Thinks About Immigration," writer Ben Smith said: "The New York Times is sitting on an audio recording that some of its staff believes could deal a serious blow to Donald Trump, who, in an off-the-record meeting with the newspaper, called into question whether he would stand by his own immigration views."

Buzzfeed reported Trump met with editorial officials at the paper in Manhattan on January 5, where discussions went forth both on- and off-the-record.

The New York Times released part of the recorded discussions that were on-the-record.

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But then one of the columnists in attendance at the meeting, Gail Collins, raised some questions in her latest piece, which read in part, Buzzfeed said: "The most optimistic analysis of Trump as a presidential candidate is that he just doesn't believe in positions, except the ones you adopt for strategic purposes when you're making a deal. So you obviously can't explain how you're going to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants because it's going to be the first bid in some future monster negotiation session."

Some individuals familiar with the situation said "the second sentence is a bit more than speculation [and] it reflects, instead, something Trump said about the flexibility of his hardline anti-immigration stance," Smith wrote.

Smith added: "So what exactly did Trump say about immigration, about deportations, about the wall? Did he abandon a core promise of his campaign in a private conversation with liberal power brokers in New York? I wasn't able to obtain the recording or the transcript, and don't know exactly what Trump said ... [and] editorial board members I reached would [not] comment on an off-the-record conversation."

Trump responded with this, during an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News: "We had a board meeting, it was off the record. All of a sudden, they leak, it's all over the place."

And on his plans for the estimated 11 million illegals currently in the country, Trump said: "I've always said we have some good people over here ... but we will work out some system that's fair. But we either have a country or we don't. We need a border, we need a wall."

Trump was quick to add: “Building it? Not negotiable.”

One of Trump's biggest campaign draws has been his views on immigration, which include building a wall between the Mexico-U.S. border – and making Mexico pay for it – and slowing the tide of immigrants, especially refugees from the Mideast, Asia and Africa, into the country to give border security time to catch up with crossings.