Trump says mass deportation drive was "too tough"

US President Donald Trump has said his mass deportation of undocumented immigrants was "too tough", according to an excerpt of an interview with the CBS programme "60 Minutes". CBS published the excerpt on X on Sunday, ahead of the full interview being broadcast on network television later that day. It was recorded after the Republican Party, to which Trump belongs, suffered a heavy loss in the midterm elections on Tuesday.

Asked about his deportation policy, the president replied: "I think it was too tough ... I think it might be too tough."

A policy that drew criticism

Trump has won some domestic support for securing the US southern border. However, his administration's aggressive push to deport millions of undocumented migrants has drawn widespread criticism.

On Friday, Trump appointed Stephen Miller, described in the source as the architect of that hardline policy, as his chief of staff. The move was read as a signal of a bare-knuckle fightback after the Republican election loss. Miller has become associated with scenes of masked immigration agents committing violence, after he backed federal agents who shot and killed two Americans earlier this year.

The source does not say whether Trump intends to change the deportation policy through specific decisions. CBS was due to air the full interview on Sunday evening.