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US President Donald Trump has offered a rare admission after the Republican Party’s midterm defeat: his deportation policy may have been “too tough”, particularly on immigrants who held jobs and whose only violation was entering the country illegally.
However, Trump appointed immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as his Chief of Staff shortly after the admission, raising questions about whether his statement would lead to a change in policy.
“I think it was too tough. I think it might be too tough,” Trump said in the interview broadcast on Sunday evening.
Republicans lost control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the November 3 elections.
Trump said he was ready to work with Democrats and acknowledged that the Iran war and higher gasoline prices had also hurt his party.
'I THINK IT'S TOO TOUGH'
Trump’s assessment of his immigration record was divided. He said he deserved “an A+ for closing up the border” and had received “very high marks for getting the bad ones out”.
The political damage, he said, came when the crackdown reached people who were working and contributing to the economy.
“But I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally,” he said.
He described a country split over their future. Some wanted them deported; others believed they should stay if they were working in hotels, landscaping businesses or other jobs and, in some cases, paying taxes.
“I think it was too tough,” he repeated.
Miller’s appointment, however, gave no clear indication that the administration was preparing to retreat from its hard-line approach.
WAR AND GASOLINE PRICES WEIGH ON RESULT
Immigration was not the only policy Trump linked to the election losses.
“They didn’t like the war,” he said of voters. “They didn’t like the fact that gasoline went up because I had it down at a low.”
He also pointed to what he described as a “great dislike” for Israel.
The President acknowledged those political costs while continuing to present himself as a peacemaker, repeating his claim that he had settled eight wars.
ANOTHER CLAIM ON INDIA-PAKISTAN CONFLICT
Among them, Trump again counted the India-Pakistan conflict, claiming that his intervention had prevented a nuclear war.
“I mean, India-Pakistan would’ve been a nuclear war. I got it settled before it got going,” he said.
He claimed that 11 aircraft had been shot down and cited Pakistan’s prime minister as crediting him with saving millions of lives.
India has consistently rejected his account of US mediation. It launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the April 22 Pahalgam attack killed 26 people.
New Delhi maintains that the understanding to stop military action was reached directly between the two countries’ Directors General of Military Operations on May 10.
It has also denied that trade discussions with Washington played a role.
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