President Trump told CBS's 60 Minutes that his deportation policy went further than it should have. "I think it was too tough," he said in an interview with Ross Douthat that aired Sunday night, three days after Republicans' midterm losses in the Nov. 3 elections.
The remark lands alongside a staffing change. According to CBS, Trump on Friday replaced chief of staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller, whom CBS describes as widely viewed as an architect of the administration's immigration agenda.
What the interview means for enforcement is not clear. According to CBS News, it is unclear whether the administration will change how it enforces immigration law. Nothing in the interview, as CBS reported it, amounts to a new policy.
What Trump Actually Said
Trump did not disown the border agenda. He said immigration "both helped and hurt" him in the midterms. He gave himself an "A+" for closing the border and said he earned "very high marks" for removing "the bad ones," CBS reported.
The damage, in his telling, came from a different group: people removed who had good jobs, had committed no violation beyond entering illegally, and in some cases paid taxes. "I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs," Trump said.
He also addressed the midterm losses directly. "I was not on the ballot," he said, according to CBS's list of takeaways from the interview.
Outlets differ on the exact wording of some of his remarks, including a version with the word "ultimately." Patriot Daily Wire has not reviewed a transcript of the roughly 27-minute broadcast and is quoting only the language CBS published.
The Numbers Behind the Question
CBS reported that Republicans lost more than 40 House seats and at least seven Senate seats, with some races still uncalled. CBS also says Democrats will take control of the House and Senate next year.
CBS exit polling found 63 percent of midterm voters disapproved of Trump's job performance, and 58 percent said the administration's immigration actions had gone too far. On which party voters trust on immigration, however, they favored Republicans 43 percent to Democrats 41 percent.
CBS, citing its own earlier reporting, says border crossings have fallen dramatically since Trump returned to office and that ICE detentions have reached record highs. Patriot Daily Wire has not verified either claim. The administration says its targets are public-safety threats.
Miller's New Role
CBS dates the Miller appointment to Friday, and its takeaways say the Wiles departure was announced about an hour after the interview. The exact sequence has not been confirmed here. CBS has also reported that Miller pushed last year for 3,000 arrests a day, a figure Patriot Daily Wire has not independently verified.
A CBS headline in its related links reads "ICE unlikely to scale back crackdown, sources say." Patriot Daily Wire has seen only the headline, not the report.
Trump said the issue helped and hurt. Reports that the first lady raised concerns about deportations, or that Trump floated a deal for hotel and landscaping workers, come from single outlets and are not part of CBS's reporting. They are unconfirmed.
What Comes Next
The open questions are whether enforcement changes and what Miller's expanded role means. Trump has said he would "love to do something on immigration" with Democrats, but no proposal has been reported.
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