US President Donald Trump has conceded that his mass deportation programme may have gone too far, in his first television interview since Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress.
Asked about the policy on CBS’s “60 Minutes”, Trump said: “I think it was too tough … I think it might be too tough.” CBS published the excerpt on X ahead of the full broadcast on Sunday, the Daily Mirror reported, citing France 24. The interview was recorded after his party’s heavy defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Trump acknowledged that voters were unhappy with the deportation drive and that it had damaged Republican performance at the polls, Al Jazeera reported. He suggested a moderate settlement would continue to deport people convicted of crimes while allowing “good people” who had lived and worked in the country “paying taxes” to remain.
An admission, then a promotion
The concession came days after Trump appointed Stephen Miller — the chief architect of the hardline policy — to replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. The appointment was made on Friday, before the interview aired.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer seized on the sequence in a post on X: “Trump says his immigration crackdown went too far,” he wrote, adding that “apparently, his solution was to put the man responsible for it in charge of the White House. That’s not a course correction. That’s a promotion.”
Trump campaigned on an immigration crackdown, blaming undocumented migrant “killers” and “drug dealers” for rising crime. The enforcement drive that followed drew sustained protests.
Context
The admission is the clearest signal yet that the administration reads last week’s result as a verdict on immigration enforcement rather than on the economy. Republicans lost both the House of Representatives and the Senate, leaving Trump to negotiate with a Democratic-controlled Congress for the remainder of his term.
Not reported
Neither filing says whether any policy change has actually been ordered, what a legislative deal would contain, or whether Miller’s appointment signals continuity or a shift. The full “60 Minutes” interview was not available to this desk at the time of writing.
