US President Donald Trump has said his administration’s immigration crackdown was “too tough”, conceding in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, 8 November, that sweeping deportations hurt Republicans in last week’s midterm elections.
“It was too tough. I think it might be too tough,” Trump told interviewer Ross Douthat, pointing in particular to immigrants who have lived in the United States for ten years or more without committing serious crimes. He said he deserved high marks for removing dangerous offenders, but added: “I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.”
Trump gave himself an “A plus” for closing the southern border, but said immigration had “both helped and hurt” his party in the midterms. According to TRT World, Republicans lost more than 40 House seats and at least seven Senate seats, and exit polls indicated 58 percent of voters viewed his immigration measures as having gone too far.
Trump named the war in Iran and bad messaging as the main reasons for the defeats and took no personal blame. It is unclear whether the concession will lead to any change in policy: he has just named Stephen Miller, the architect of the deportation policies, as his new chief of staff. CBS reported that ICE sources said officers have recently been told to aim for about 2,700 arrests a day, up from an earlier target of about 2,000.
Source: CNN — https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/08/politics/trumps-regrets-immigration-enforcement-60-minutes-interview (also reported by BBC News).
