President Donald Trump gave his base a shock Sunday, telling "60 Minutes" he's having second thoughts about his hardball approach to immigration enforcement.
Asked how immigration affected the Republican Party's midterm performance, he told interviewer Ross Douthat, "I think I got an A-plus for closing up the border."
But then he said the verdict was mixed, adding: "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."
"I think it might be too tough, yeah," he concluded when pressed by Douthat.
"That hurt me."
Yet two years ago, Trump's promises to reverse the flood of illegal immigration unleashed by Joe Biden helped him win reelection — and win every battleground state to boot.
And as dismal as last Tuesday's results were for the GOP, exit polls show voters trusted Republicans more than Democrats on immigration, 45% to 43%.
Republicans were a solid majority — 57% — of those who rated immigration enforcement "crucial" to how they voted.
Those core Republicans won't reward the president, or the party, for going weak.
But Trump sent another signal shortly after the midterms that ought to reassure immigration hawks when he announced Stephen Miller, a staunch restrictionist, would replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.
MAGA wasn't wiped out in last week's Democratic tsunami — just as Trump wasn't swept out of public life by the 2020 election.
He knows how to make a comeback, and that's what he's planning here.
But it's a dangerous gambit:
Trump wants to soften his image, and the Republican Party's, but he has to do it without capitulating to the Democrats, who have not changed a whit since the Biden years.
A smart strategy will be to put the Democrats on the defensive, forcing them to choose between American workers or the companies that employ cheap illegal labor.
If workplace immigration raids trigger bad publicity, there are gentler-seeming yet just as effective ways to go after the boardrooms instead, with high fines and indeed prison terms for executives who break the nation's immigration and labor laws.
The corporate crooks who profit from illegal immigration aren't so easily defended by the open-borders left, and if the administration goes after them, it will show voters who is really on the side of American workers — and who's in bed with big business.
Republicans win when they're the populist party, as Trump's reelection and last week's midterm debacle both illustrated: All the policies Republicans champion have to be framed in populist terms, and the party can't afford to be seen as corrupt or too tight with Big Tech.
The GOP also can't afford to seem cruel or racist, and despite what his enemies say about him, Trump has more often than not succeeded in talking about immigration enforcement in ways that appeal to citizens of all ethnic backgrounds.
Midterm voters had qualms about ICE's enforcement tactics, but Americans still want secure borders, and they want illegal immigrants who commit crimes to be the first to be deported.
The Trump administration can put productive pressure on the Democratic Congress, daring legislators to cut off the forms of enforcement that remain overwhelmingly popular.
Trump today is in the same position Bill Clinton was in after the 1994 midterms, when Democrats suffered an historic wipeout that cost them both the House and Senate.
Clinton looked like he'd be a dead man going into his 1996 reelection battle, but he outmaneuvered the new Republican Congress in the test of wills over the 1995 government shutdown, and voters gave him credit, too, for working with Republicans to pass welfare reform.
He was easily reelected.
Trump won't be on the ballot in 2028, but the Trump party will be. Republican chances in the next election heavily depend on what the president does from here on out.
He can't simply trust Democrats to make good on an immigration deal: Ronald Reagan learned that the hard way when he agreed to an amnesty in 1986 on the promise that Democrats in Congress would legislate stronger enforcement.
But Trump can force Congress to make hard choices between legal workers and lawbreaking employers, and he can speak in conciliatory tones even as he puts Democrats in a position of having to reveal their radicalism.
Immigration has always been a winning issue for Trump. Now he needs to make it one for his party as well.
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Previously:
• 11/10/26: A Slippery Slope to Criminalizing Politics
• 10/28/26: Can Brazil and Venezuela Tolerate Opposition?
• 10/22/26: Why George Washington Would Deport Mahmoud Khalil
• 10/06/26: Latin America's Many Trumps
• 09/30/26: MAID in America?
• 09/22/26: Sore Losers Are Socialism's Allies
• 09/15/26: The Immigration Politics of a Felon's Pardon
• 09/14/26: Jobs and Manufacturing Are on the Ballot
• 09/01/26: How to Tackle Domestic Extremists' Foreign Enablers
• 08/25/26: Why Hasan Piker Mocks a Murdered Man
• 08/18/26: Dems' Southern Strategy
• 08/11/26: Homebuyers Deserve the Facts About Crime and Schools
• 08/04/26: Diversity, Equity, and Confabulation
• 07/28/26: Democratic Socialists of America vs. John Adams
• 07/21/26: Why Dems Can't Do Better Than Kamala Harris in 2028
• 07/14/26: Prescription for a Socialist Workforce
• 07/07/26: The Smithsonian's Patriotism Problem
• 06/30/26: Bill Maher, Liberalism's Apostate
• 06/23/26: Can Anyone Govern Britain -- or America?
• 06/16/26: University Professors Against Academic Freedom
• 06/09/26: Pope Leo Courts the Global Left
• 06/02/26: A Mass-Graves Myth Is Media Malpractice
• 05/28/26: Dems Face Midterm Disappointment
• 05/26/26: Dems Face Midterm Disappointment
• 05/12/26: Dems finally come clean 'bout their radical design
• 05/05/26: The Silenced Generation
• 04/28/26:Colleges Are Making Political Violence Worse
• 04/21/26:Immigration Amnesty by Any Other Name
• 04/14/26: A New Extreme in Gerrymandering
• 04/07/26: A New Extreme in Gerrymandering
• 03/17/26: Why Are Senate Dems Making Air Travel Worse?
• 03/10/26: Cuba Should Accept Trump's 'Friendly Takeover'
• 03/03/26: Immigration Enforcement Saves Lives
• 02/24/26: How a Party Offends Its Voters
• 02/17/26: Why Are Anti-ICE Activists Building Borders?
• 02/10/26: A Japanese Lesson for Troubled Britain
• 02/03/26: The Trump Coalition Wins But the GOP Brand Doesn't
• 01/27/26: Canada Should Warm to Trump's Arctic Plans
• 01/20/26: From Rock to Tech, Talent Flees Taxes
• 01/13/26: Woman Who Weaponized Car Against I.C.E Endangered Her Life -- and Yours
• 01/06/26: Tim Walz Personifies Dems' Decline
• 12/30/25: Harvard Says Yes to Discrimination, No to Western Civ
• 12/23/25: JD Vance Gets America's Creed and Heritage Right
• 12/16/25: Trump's Inflation Trap
• 12/09/25: Biden's Immigration Debacle Is the Media's, Too
• 12/02/25: 'Iryna's Law' and the Bad Judges Who Make It Necessary
• 11/26/25: Marjorie Taylor Greene's Exit Is a Warning to Republicans
• 11/19/25: Trump Hasn't Lost Hispanics (Yet)
• 11/11/25: Trump's Tariffs on Trial
• 10/28/25: MAGA Makes Allies Great Again
• 10/21/25: How To Make the AmericaS Great Again
• 10/16/25: Columbus Day Celebrates Our Civilization
• 10/09/25: Why Sharpies Are Made in America Again
• 09/30/25: Assata Shakur and Other Parents of Political Violence
• 09/09/25: Who's Accountable for Autopen Pardons?
• 09/02/25: Gender dysphoria is a mental-illness, NOT an all-encompassing delusion
• 08/26/25: Trump's Industrial Policy Is Realism, Not Socialism
• 08/19/25: Is Gavin Newsom the Dems' Answer to Trump?
• 08/12/25: Just Say No to More Marijuana
• 08/05/25: Will the GOP Make Libs Generous Again?
• 07/30/25: Trump's Trade Lesson for Economists (and the World)
• 07/22/25: Whose Politics Canceled Stephen Colbert?
• 07/08/25: A Big Beautiful Test of GOP Principles and Discipline
• 07/01/25: Dems Need Populism, But Not Zohran's Sort
• 06/25/25: Secure Borders Win Wars Like This One
• 06/18/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
• 06/17/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
• 06/04/25: State that's long eluded GOP turns toward Trump
• 05/21/24: Trump's Sun Belt Hopes and Rust Belt Needs
• 05/14/24: What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
• 05/07/24: The Vietnam Era Never Ended for Biden's Party
• 05/06/24: Nationalists of the World, Unite?
• 04/25/24: Foreign Policy Splits
• 04/16/24: How pro-lifers stand to lose everything gained in overturning Roe
• 04/02/24: PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
• 04/02/24: Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
• 03/26/24: Trump Hunts for a VP Close to Home
• 03/19/24: Princess Kate and Democracy's Discontents
• 03/12/24: Can Biden Buy the Voters?
• 03/05/24: Veepstakes Give Trump an Edge
• 02/20/24: Do Americans Trust Either Party?
• 02/13/24: Vladimir Putin -- A Passive Aggressor
• 01/23/24: Will 'Lawfare' Take Trump Off the Ballot?
• 01/16/24: Will Africa Save America?
• 01/09/24:'The Sopranos' at 25: A new world tragedy
• 01/02/24: Trump, Biden and a Fight for the Heart
• 12/12/23: What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
• 12/12/23: Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He?
• 12/05/23: A Test for Trump and His Rivals
• 11/21/23: When Inequality Is Fatal for Men
• 11/14/23: Nevermind, The Battle's Over
• 11/07/23: War in the Dem Party -- and at the Opera
• 10/24/23: Israel's Lesson for 2024: A Lib Crackup
• 10/17/23: Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel?
• 10/10/23: Why Bidenflation Defines Bidenomics
• 10/03/23: Will Gavin Newsom Copy Trump?
• 09/26/23: Biden's a Loser -- but Dems Can't Ditch Him
• 09/19/23: Do Sex Scandals Matter?
• 09/12/23: Cornel West Spells Doom for Biden
• 09/05/23: What Trump Does for Democracy
• 08/2/23: Ramaswamy: A Trump Versus Trump?
• 08/22/23: Take 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Seriously
• 08/16/23: How America Kills Its Own
• 08/08/23: The Biden Pardon That Can Spare America
• 08/01/23: Harding, a consevative for the ages
• 07/25/23: Demography Destiny, for Us and China
• 07/18/23: The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
• 07/11/23: Britain's Bad Example for American Conservatives
• 07/05/23: Could We Still Win a Revolutionary War?
• 06/27/23: Civilizations Clash -- in Ukraine and at Home
• 06/20/23: China Comes for the Caribbean
• 06/13/23: Fertility, Family and Bio-Socialism
• 06/06/23: From American Dream to Orwell's Nightmare
• 05/23/23: Ukraine war is an existential struggle --- for the West
• 05/23/23: Learn the Right Midterm Lessons -- or Lose in 2024
• 05/16/23: Feinstein Today Is Biden Tomorrow
• 05/09/23: Trump, DeSantis and Political Courtship
• 05/02/23: RFK Jr.'s Threat to Biden
• 04/25/23: Biden's Lost Generation
• 04/25/23: Who's In Charge of Clarence Thomas?
• 04/11/23: Beyond AI, Our Cyborg Future
• 04/04/23: 2024: 3 Leaders, 1 Way to Win
• 03/28/23: Climate Science Makes a Bad Religion
• 03/21/23: All the Conspiracy That's Fit to Print