Trump
Says Immigration Crackdown May Have ‘Hurt’ Republicans in Midterms
The
president was asked in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday whether
his deportation policies went too far. “I think it might be too tough,” he
said.
Ross
Douthat speaking with President Trump in the Oval Office. It was Mr. Trump’s
first interview since the midterm elections.Credit..."60 Minutes"/CBS
News
Reporting
from Washington
Nov. 8,
2026
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/08/us/politics/trump-immigration-crackdown-republicans-midterms.html
President
Trump says he believes that his aggressive immigration policies may have hurt
Republicans in the midterm election, acknowledging that his approach to
deportations, in particular, was “too tough.”
In an
interview with “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday night, Mr. Trump
acknowledged that what he had considered a marquee accomplishment of his second
term was also a reason that his party suffered seismic losses and Democrats
took both chambers of Congress, by wide margins. Mr. Trump said he believed
that making a deal on immigration with Democrats was “actually doable.”
“I think
it both helped and hurt,” Mr. Trump said of his policies. “I think I got an
A-plus for closing up the border. I get very high marks for getting the bad
ones out, but I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that —
that created one violation or breaking of the law: that was that they came into
the country illegally.”
Asked
pointedly whether he thought his deportation policy went too far, Mr. Trump
replied: “I think it might be too tough, yea.” He added: “That hurt me.”
Mr. Trump
made the admission in an in-depth interview, his first sit-down after the
midterm elections, in which he also reiterated his arguments that Republicans
lost for several reasons: because he was not on the ballot, “bad messaging,”
the war in Iran is unpopular, and voter turnout among party members was low.
Mr.
Trump’s admission that immigration was a liability in the midterms was a new
assessment, but came the same day that Mr. Trump announced
that he would elevate Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration agenda,
to serve as his chief of staff. The interview was taped on Friday with Ross
Douthat, the former New York Times columnist.
That day,
Mr. Trump announced that Mr. Miller would replace Susie Wiles, a longtime aide
and strategist whom Mr. Trump partially blamed for the midterm losses,
signaling that he was prepared to double down on his hard-line agenda — which
has included high-profile raids and deadly ICE shootings — that contributed
to the Republican wipeout.
After the
election losses, Mr. Miller signaled that he was still prepared to pursue the
same policies. The Times reported
that Mr. Miller convened a call the day after during which he continued to
push the officials to carry out an agenda that has in the past year included ramping up
deportations, driving down border
crossings and removing immigrants to nations
they were not from.
Mr. Trump
acknowledged in the “60 Minutes” interview that there was a group of people “on
the sort of pretty far right” that “would like everybody taken out.” He said
that included people in his administration.
The
president said he believed that Democrats would be interested in a deal that
reflected the thinking of more moderate parts of his base who want “killers”
and drug dealers deported, but would be open to a deal for people who have been
in the country “for 10 and 15 years.” Currently, anyone in the country
illegally is subject to arrest and deportation, no matter how long they have
lived in the United States.
“When you
go into a hotel and you have a woman that’s worked there as — you know, as a
maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a that, as a waitress, a lot of good things,
great jobs” he said, “and all of a sudden they’re being taken out of the
country, it’s tough. It’s a tough thing.”
This is
not the first time Mr. Trump has conceded that his immigration agenda has gone
too far. Earlier this year, after immigration officials fatally shot two
American citizens during a crackdown in Minnesota that drew national outrage,
Mr. Trump said
the administration could use a “softer touch.”
In other
parts of the interview that aired on Sunday, Mr. Trump also discussed the war
in Iran, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the billions he has made during in
his second term (he said his family manages his fortune without discussing it
with him), his bullishness on artificial intelligence and his hope of being
missed and going to heaven when he dies.
The
interview concluded with Mr. Trump being asked whether he would be able to
forgive his political enemies, like Nancy Pelosi and James Comey, if that is
all he had to do to gain admission into heaven.
The
president admitted that he could not.
Erica L. Green is a White
House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his
administration.
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