President Trump says he believes that his aggressive immigration policies may have hurt Republicans in the midterm election, acknowledging that his approach to deportations, in particular, was “too tough.”
In an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday night, Mr. Trump acknowledged that what he had considered a marquee accomplishment of his second term was also a reason that his party suffered seismic losses and Democrats took both chambers of Congress, by wide margins. Mr. Trump said he believed that making a deal on immigration with Democrats was “actually doable.”
“I think it both helped and hurt,” Mr. Trump said of his policies. “I think I got an A-plus 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, that — that created one violation or breaking of the law: that was that they came into the country illegally.”
Asked pointedly whether he thought his deportation policy went too far, Mr. Trump replied: “I think it might be too tough, yea.” He added: “That hurt me.”
Mr. Trump made the admission in an in-depth interview, his first sit-down after the midterm elections, in which he also reiterated his arguments that Republicans lost for several reasons: because he was not on the ballot, “bad messaging,” the war in Iran is unpopular, and voter turnout among party members was low.
Mr. Trump’s admission that immigration was a liability in the midterms was a new assessment, but came the same day that Mr. Trump announced that he would elevate Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration agenda, to serve as his chief of staff. The interview was taped on Friday with Ross Douthat, the former New York Times columnist.
That day, Mr. Trump announced that Mr. Miller would replace Susie Wiles, a longtime aide and strategist whom Mr. Trump partially blamed for the midterm losses, signaling that he was prepared to double down on his hard-line agenda — which has included high-profile raids and deadly ICE shootings — that contributed to the Republican wipeout.
After the election losses, Mr. Miller signaled that he was still prepared to pursue the same policies. The Times reported that Mr. Miller convened a call the day after during which he continued to push the officials to carry out an agenda that has in the past year included ramping up deportations, driving down border crossings and removing immigrants to nations they were not from.
Mr. Trump acknowledged in the “60 Minutes” interview that there was a group of people “on the sort of pretty far right” that “would like everybody taken out.” He said that included people in his administration.
The president said he believed that Democrats would be interested in a deal that reflected the thinking of more moderate parts of his base who want “killers” and drug dealers deported, but would be open to a deal for people who have been in the country “for 10 and 15 years.” Currently, anyone in the country illegally is subject to arrest and deportation, no matter how long they have lived in the United States.
“When you go into a hotel and you have a woman that’s worked there as — you know, as a maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a that, as a waitress, a lot of good things, great jobs” he said, “and all of a sudden they’re being taken out of the country, it’s tough. It’s a tough thing.”
This is not the first time Mr. Trump has conceded that his immigration agenda has gone too far. Earlier this year, after immigration officials fatally shot two American citizens during a crackdown in Minnesota that drew national outrage, Mr. Trump said the administration could use a “softer touch.”
In other parts of the interview that aired on Sunday, Mr. Trump also discussed the war in Iran, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the billions he has made during in his second term (he said his family manages his fortune without discussing it with him), his bullishness on artificial intelligence and his hope of being missed and going to heaven when he dies.
The interview concluded with Mr. Trump being asked whether he would be able to forgive his political enemies, like Nancy Pelosi and James Comey, if that is all he had to do to gain admission into heaven.
The president admitted that he could not.
The post Trump Says Immigration Crackdown May Have ‘Hurt’ Republicans in Midterms appeared first on New York Times.
