For a president who built his return to office on the promise of a crackdown, that is a notable shift in tone.
Donald Trump has conceded that his immigration policy may have cost his Republican Party last week's midterm elections, telling CBS's 60 Minutes that his administration's deportation drive may have been too severe for voters. In his first television interview since Republicans lost control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the US president said of the crackdown, "I think it might be too tough," according to Al Jazeera's account of the broadcast, which aired on Sunday.
The admission follows a period in which extensive operations to detain and deport immigrants were launched in multiple US cities, with arrests soaring and widespread protests following. According to the report, two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by federal officers during protests against the operations. Trump had campaigned on a crackdown, blaming undocumented migrants for rising crime.
Trump also signalled that he could work with the new Democratic-controlled Congress on an immigration agreement. "The deal would be we would work something out," he said, adding that he thought such an arrangement was "actually doable." He described a moderate settlement as one that would still deport criminals while allowing "good people" who had lived and worked in the country and paid taxes to stay.
The conciliatory language sits awkwardly beside his personnel decisions. The interview aired after Trump appointed Stephen Miller, described in the report as the chief architect of his hardline immigration policy, to replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer seized on the contrast in a post on X, saying Trump had admitted his crackdown went too far and adding: "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."
Democrats have said oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security will be a priority for the new Congress, giving the party leverage over funding and operations. Whether Trump's remarks translate into legislation is unclear. The report gives no detail on what a deal might contain, no timetable for negotiations and no indication of how congressional leaders in either party have responded to the president's overture. The scope of any concession on deportations, and whether Miller's appointment signals continuity rather than change, are likewise unconfirmed.
What the interview does establish is that the White House now acknowledges political damage from its own enforcement programme. For a president who built his return to office on the promise of a crackdown, that is a notable shift in tone. Whether it becomes a shift in policy is the question the new Congress will test.
