Trump Says His Deportation Policy ‘Might Be Too Tough’ and Eyes a Deal With Democrats
President Donald Trump said his deportation push “might be too tough” and cost Republicans at the polls, and he floated an immigration deal with the Democrats who will run Congress in January.
Trump spoke with correspondent Ross Douthat in a “60 Minutes” interview taped Friday, three days after the GOP lost the House and Senate, CBS News reported.
“I think it both helped and hurt,” Trump said of his crackdown, according to the CBS transcript. “I think I got an A+ 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,” he continued, describing people whose only violation was entering illegally and who work for landscaping companies or hotels, “and in some cases, paying taxes.”
Asked whether his deportation policy went too far, Trump said, “Too tough.” Pressed again, he said, “I think it might be too tough, yeah,” adding, “I think ultimately that hurt me.”
Trump said a deal with Democrats is “actually doable.” He described a camp that would “get the drug dealers out” but “let the people that are here, and in some cases here for ten and 15 years, work a deal for them.”
He said some on the “pretty far right” want everyone deported. Asked whether any of those people work in his administration, Trump answered, “Yes,” and later added, “there’re a lotta those people.”
Trump said Democrats have already called him, including Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico, whom he had nicknamed “Talafreako.” Asked if he could stop insulting Democrats for six months to get a deal, he said, “Very easily.”
An hour after the interview was taped, Trump replaced chief of staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller, the architect of his mass deportation policy, a move CBS said “seems to conflict” with his stated desire to work with Democrats.
CBS exit polling found 58% of voters think the administration’s immigration actions have gone too far, the network reported. Still, voters trusted Republicans slightly more than Democrats to handle immigration, 43% to 41%.
A Fox News Voter poll of more than 100,000 registered voters found immigration was the only issue on which Republicans led Democrats before the election, Fox News reported.
Trump also backed Vice President JD Vance’s post blaming the Iran war for the GOP losses. “I don’t disagree with it,” he said, according to Fox News, but wished Vance had said he would make the same call again.
Trump said voters “didn’t like the war” and rising gas prices, and pointed to “a great dislike, incredibly, for Israel.” He said countries the U.S. protected “are going to pay us back any and all costs that we’ve had for the war.”
Asked Sunday night whether Vance’s comments had hurt their relationship, Trump said, “No, not at all, but a lot of people didn’t like his comments, but not me,” the Washington Examiner reported.
Trump told Douthat he “probably” would endorse a 2028 candidate, “but not necessarily,” and called Secretary of State Marco Rubio “great,” the Washington Examiner reported. He said he could not forgive enemies such as James Comey and Nancy Pelosi.
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