Trump admits immigration enforcement may have been too ‘tough’ in first interview since midterms

By Lindsay Kornick
Published November 08, 2026
Fox News

President Donald Trump admitted that he may have been too "tough" in his immigration enforcement in his first sit-down interview since the midterm elections last week.

Trump spoke to CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat about several topics largely related to the Democratic Party's overwhelming wins in last week's midterm elections, which included victories in Republican strongholds like Texas.

During their conversation, Douthat asked whether Trump's strict immigration and deportation enforcement likely contributed to Republican losses.

"I think it both helped and hurt," Trump answered. "I think I got an A-plus for closing up the border…I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out."

In the extended interview posted online, Trump added, "We had 25 million people come in through Biden over a four-year period, and many of those people were — as you know, they were from prisons, they were drug dealers, they were from mental institutions."

However, Trump conceded that many illegal immigrants within the country were "good" people, which likely led to his policies facing backlash.

"But I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that — that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally. Now, there is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out. And there's a large part of the country that think that they should be allowed to stay if they're good people working in a landscaping company, or working in a hotel, or doing something, right? And in some cases, paying taxes. And there's a large group of people who think that they should be allowed to stay."

"So you think your deportation policy — went too far?" Douthat asked.

"I think it was — too tough…I think it might be too tough, yeah," Trump responded, adding, "And I think ultimately that hurt me."

The president also suggested an immigration deal with the incoming Democratic Congress could be "doable" outside the more extreme groups who either prefer every illegal immigrant to be deported or prefer not to deport any illegal immigrant.

Trump also suggested many Democrats are willing to work with him to enforce the border, acknowledging incoming Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico as an example.

In a Fox News voter poll of more than 100,000 registered voters nationwide from Oct. 19 to Nov. 3, 2026, immigration was the only issue that Republicans led Democrats on.