Yesterday on “60 Minutes,” President Donald Trump discussed midterm political fallout, and in a personal first, conceded that his deportation policies were “too tough” and by extension, contributed to last week’s historic Republican losses. For that reason, he expressed support for negotiating a bipartisan deal with the newly democrat-controlled house and senate, potentially granting legal status to undocumented individuals with clean records, occupations and fiscal contributions to the economy — populations his administration long denied deporting, promising such consequences only to “the worst of the worst.”

“When you go into a hotel and you say, ‘Let me see your pass,’ and you have a woman that’s worked there as a maid, as a cleaner — great job,” Trump told Ross Douthat on 60 Minutes. “And all of a sudden they’re being taken out of the country, it’s tough.” 

The concession came in contrast to Trump’s claims that his administration has delivered on its promise to secure the southern border, claiming that there has been zero illegal crossings since he returned to office — a claim contradicted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) own metrics.

What’s new, however, is the fact that Trump’s statements to Douthat include references to cases he’s long denied.

“I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out,” he said. “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.” 

According to an investigation from the Migration Policy Institute, 71% of the 980,000 immigrants deported between January 2025 and July 2026 had resided in the U.S. for two or more years. And of that population, 61% of deportees had no criminal conviction. 

Over the last decade of ever-relenting “Trumpism,” the president has repeated claims that undocumented immigrants benefit from public programs while not paying taxes. But during this appearance, he conceded, saying some undocumented workers in landscaping, hotels and other jobs were, in some cases, paying taxes.”

In reality, undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $13 billion in payroll taxes per year to fund public benefits they don’t qualify for and will never be able to receive, which is actually a net gain.

All the while, Trump has spent the past year accusing some people protesting his “too tough” immigration policies of “domestic terrorism.” Still, it’s uncertain whether his rhetorical shift is indicative of immigration policy recalibration or if he’s just placating constituents after the midterm elections’ brutal implications.

Neither however, will undo the deportations of parents, suffering of detainees or what the ICE agents did to Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti for advocating for the same idea Trump acknowledges now.