“It was too tough. I think it might be too tough”: Trump’s admission on 60 Minutes

President Donald Trump has admitted that his administration’s mass deportation policy was “too tough” and may have cost Republicans the midterm elections, in a remarkable shift from a president who made immigration enforcement central to his political identity.

The admission was made during an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, ValidViewNetwork reports .

THE ADMISSION

Trump did not mince words. “It was too tough. I think it might be too tough,” Trump said, citing in particular immigrants who have been in the country for ten years or more without committing serious crimes.

He acknowledged that the crackdown had alienated voters. “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 said.

He specifically referred to immigrants employed in hotels, restaurants and landscaping businesses, arguing that their removal had created difficult situations.

“When you go into a hotel and you have a woman that’s worked there for a, you know, as a maid, as a cleaner … as a waitress, a lot of good things, great jobs. And all of a sudden they’re being taken out of the country. It’s tough. It’s a tough thing”.

THE OPENING

Trump also indicated that he was willing to work with Democrats, who are set to take control of both chambers of Congress in January, to find a solution on immigration.

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“I’d love to do something on immigration,” he said.

He suggested that a bipartisan agreement could create a pathway for some undocumented immigrants to remain in the country, particularly those who had been living and working in the US for several years.

“Let the people that are here and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years, work a deal for them,” he said . “The deal would be we would work something out. And I think it’s something—I think that’s something that’s actually doable”.

THE SCHUMER REACTION

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer did not miss the irony. “Trump says his immigration crackdown went too far,” Schumer scoffed on social media Sunday after the interview aired. “Apparently, his solution was to put the man responsible for it in charge of the White House. That’s not a course correction. That’s a promotion” .

THE ANALYTICAL LENS

This is a confession disguised as a concession.

Trump is not admitting that his immigration policy was morally wrong. He is admitting that it was politically costly. He is not saying that the deportations were inhumane. He is saying that they hurt him at the ballot box.

The distinction matters.

Trump’s entire political career has been built on the argument that he is a winner, that he makes the tough decisions that others avoid.

Now he is admitting that one of those tough decisions was too tough. It is a rare moment of self-reflection from a president who rarely engages in it.

But the timing is suspicious. The admission came days after the midterm rout, in an interview with 60 Minutes, a programme watched by millions of Americans.

It is a signal, intended or not, that Trump is looking for a way out of the political corner he has painted himself into.

The problem is that the man he just appointed as his chief of staff is Stephen Miller, the architect of the very policies he now says were too tough.

It is like appointing an arsonist to run the fire department and then saying the fire was a mistake. The immigration debate is not over. It is just entering a new phase.

And Trump, for the first time, is admitting that he may have gone too far. Whether that admission leads to a genuine policy shift, or merely to another round of political theatre, remains to be seen. ValidViewNetwork reports.