President Donald Trump said his administration's deportation campaign went "too tough," and that it cost him politically — a concession delivered five days after Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress.
The remarks came in an interview broadcast on Sunday, November 8, 2026, by CBS's "60 Minutes." Asked whether the overhaul of immigration enforcement had hurt him, Trump said: "I think it was too tough." He added: "I think ultimately, that hurt me."
The border and the workplace
Trump drew a line between the two halves of his own record. He said voters still gave him high marks for securing the border and for "getting the bad ones out," and he defended both.
The backlash, by his account, came from somewhere else: the removal of immigrants who were working. He cited people employed as cleaners, waitresses and landscapers, and said that when those workers are taken away, "It's tough. It's a tough thing."
That is a narrower reading of the election result than the one his own party has been arguing over for a week, and it points at the part of the enforcement drive that reached workplaces rather than the border.
An opening toward the Democrats
Trump said he was willing to negotiate with the opposition on a measure that would create a path for some immigrants to remain in the country.
"I'd love to do something on immigration," he said. He suggested that immigrants who have lived in the United States for 10 or 15 years could "work a deal" to stay, and said "People have already called me" about such an arrangement, without naming anyone. Asked whether he could go six months without insulting Democrats in order to reach an agreement, he said he could.
Any deal would have to pass a Congress his party no longer controls. Democrats flipped both the House and the Senate in the November 3 midterms, and the incoming Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027 — which leaves a five-week lame-duck session before the arithmetic changes.
The architect moves into the West Wing
The concession sits awkwardly beside Trump's own staffing decision. On November 6 he handed the White House chief of staff's office to Stephen Miller, the adviser most closely identified with the enforcement campaign, replacing Susie Wiles.
Incoming Democratic committee chairs have already said Miller's record is one of the things they intend to examine when they take the gavels in January.
Reporting from ABC News, Al Jazeera, Just Security and CBS's "60 Minutes."
