President Donald Trump has conceded that his administration's mass deportation programme may have gone too far, in his first interview since Republicans lost control of Congress in last week's midterm elections.

Speaking to CBS's 60 Minutes in an interview recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday evening, Mr. Trump told interviewer Ross Douthat that the crackdown had "both helped and hurt" his party. Asked whether the deportation policy had gone too far, he replied: "I think it might be too tough, yeah."

"I think I got an A+ for closing up the border," Mr. Trump said. "I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out. But I got hurt because we also took people that had good jobs." He singled out immigrants who have lived in the United States for ten years or more without committing serious crimes, and said he was open to working with Democrats in the new Congress on an immigration deal that could allow some long-settled workers to stay.

The midterm verdict

The admission follows a sweeping Democratic victory in the midterm elections on 3 November, when Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, flipping Republican-held seats in several traditionally Republican strongholds. Immigration enforcement was a central issue in the campaign: an Associated Press survey of more than 100,000 voters found that about six in ten said the Trump administration's actions on immigration enforcement had "gone too far".

The figures behind the policy are stark. Border Patrol encounters in fiscal year 2026 were down 93 per cent compared with fiscal year 2024, the final year of the Biden administration. But the administration has deported nearly one million people in the 18 months since January 2025, and about 71 per cent of those deported had no criminal conviction, according to an October 2026 analysis by the Migration Policy Institute.

A contradictory appointment

Whether the concession will lead to any change in policy is far from clear. Hours after the interview was recorded, Mr. Trump named Stephen Miller — the architect of his mass deportation agenda — as his new chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. Mr. Miller, 41, the deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, took over the post on Monday.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer scoffed at the interview on social media, arguing that promoting Mr. Miller contradicted the president's suggestion of a softer approach. Mr. Trump gave no specifics about what an immigration deal with Democrats would look like, and industries that rely heavily on immigrant labour — including agriculture and construction — have reacted with alarm to Mr. Miller's promotion.

What comes next

With Democrats now controlling both chambers of Congress, any immigration legislation will need their votes — and Mr. Trump's remarks suggest he knows it. The question is whether the president who built his political brand on deportations is willing to negotiate a deal that lets long-settled workers stay, while the man who designed the crackdown now runs his White House.