This is a direction we have not seen President Trump go very often.
In reverse.
That gives him something in common with the national political debate. That's been going downhill now for years.
The president bowed to growing pressure - including some from his daughter and First Lady Melania Trump - and signed an executive order Wednesday afternoon ending the policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border.
The move ended days of growing dissent from both sides of the aisle as the country continues to grapple with the burning issue of illegal immigration.
Of course, it did not take long for the president to be back in 'rally' mode, railing against Democrats in a speech in Duluth, Minn., in which he claimed Democrats were siding with illegal immigrants over Americans.
For days, the president had maintained that the policy was the result of a law passed by Congress and that they must take action to stop it. That turned out not to be the case.
And after apparently hearing from family members, the president got on board, saying he did not like the sounds or the look of children being separated from their parents.
The issue is not going to go away.
Neither is the increasingly hostile, coarse, debasing conversation that now passes for a national discourse.
It starts at the top, with a president who thinks nothing of throwing raw meat to his base, insisting that "murderers and thieves" want to "infest" our country. Has this guy ever been to Ellis Island, not far from his magnificent skyscraper in New York City.
It's why his former campaign manager can belittle the plight of a 10-year-old with Down syndrome in the increasingly ugly immigration debate.
And it's why actor Peter Fonda can temporarily lose hold of his senses and post a vicious, horrific tweet aimed at the president's son.
This is the real danger that is threatening to consume the country. We can't simply talk reasonably to each other.
Everything has to be delivered with a flame-thrower.
And seemingly with every Tweet, every Facebook post, every comment that gets posted online, we lower the bar for rational, reasonable, civil debate.
With the midterms lying ahead, don't expect it to get better.
Trump does it because it works.
Expect others to follow suit.
It's going to be a long, hot summer.
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