Breaking News · November 8, 2026, 9:20 PM CST
As reported by BBC:
Trump says immigration crackdown was 'too tough' and played part in midterms defeat US President Donald Trump has said his immigration crackdown was "too tough", marking one of his clearest public retreats from a defining plank of his political agenda, following his party's drubbing in the midterm elections.
In an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes programme, Trump said he believed he deserved an "A plus" for drastically limiting illegal border crossings, but he had been politically "hurt" by sweeping deportations.
His acknowledgement came despite his homeland security department insisting it was not backing away from the crackdown. Election day polling indicated immigration was the third most important issue for midterm voters, after the economy and the state of democracy.
In historically conservative states like Texas, a swing of Latino voters towards Democrats helped seal the Democratic Party's landslide majorities in Congress. The president told 60 Minutes that immigration "both helped and hurt" his fellow Republicans in Tuesday's midterms.[1]
On the record
"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." "I think it was too tough," the president said.[1]
Days after Republicans faced a series of bruising midterm election losses, President Trump stood by his handling of the economy and the Iran war — but he acknowledged some "bad messaging" on economic issues and said his immigration crackdown was "too tough" at times.[2]
The numbers in the reporting
How 5 outlets are reporting it
- Trump says after midterms defeat his immigration crackdown was 'too tough' (BBC)
- 10 takeaways from Trump's 60 Minutes interview: Why GOP lost the midterms, what went wrong on immigration and more (CBS News)
- Trump says his deportation policy ‘might have been too tough’ for voters (Los Angeles Times)
- Midterm election latest: Efforts to impeach Pete Hegseth solidify following Democrats’ midterm election victories (CNN)
- Five Takeaways From Trump’s ‘60 Minutes’ Interview (WSJ)
What CBS News reports
Days after Republicans faced a series of bruising midterm election losses, President Trump stood by his handling of the economy and the Iran war — but he acknowledged some "bad messaging" on economic issues and said his immigration crackdown was "too tough" at times.
In a sitdown with 60 Minutes correspondent Ross Douthat, the president also suggested some top administration officials could be on their way out. One hour later, he announced White House chief of staff Susie Wiles would depart her role and be replaced by Stephen Miller.[2]
What is not yet confirmed
- I don't even know." He denied that he is prioritizing his own financial interests, saying his stock holdings are invested in broad indexes and his sons are in charge of his company.[2]
What the official record says
We searched government, military, court and international-body sites for a statement or document on this story and found none published yet. The officials quoted in this report are quoted as the outlets reported them, so treat those statements as secondhand until the original is published.
How to Verify This Yourself
Each headline above links to that outlet’s own report. The quoted passages come from the first two of those reports that could be retrieved in full.
References
- BBC. Trump says after midterms defeat his immigration crackdown was 'too tough'. ↩
- CBS News. 10 takeaways from Trump's 60 Minutes interview: Why GOP lost the midterms, what went wrong on immigration and more. ↩
- BBC. Trump says after midterms defeat his immigration crackdown was 'too tough'. Related coverage (not quoted above) ↩
- The Business Standard. After midterm defeat, Trump admits immigration crackdown was 'too tough'. Related coverage (not quoted above) ↩
- Yahoo. White House vows to keep up immigration crackdown after midterms defeat. Related coverage (not quoted above) ↩
Investigative methodology: this story was selected because 5 separate news organizations were reporting it at the same time. The quoted text is verbatim from the cited reports; nothing is paraphrased or added. Produced by scripts/breaking_news_monitor.py, not a language model.
Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk
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