President Donald Trump acknowledged that his immigration policies were 'too tough,' saying in an interview on CBS' '60 Minutes' that aired Sunday that mass deportations hurt him during the midterm elections.
Trump said his policies had been overly harsh in removing undocumented immigrants who had not committed crimes. 'I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally,' he said in the interview, which was recorded Friday.
He added that 'a large group of people' believe immigrants who are 'good people, working in a landscaping company or working in a hotel or doing something .. and, in some cases, paying taxes,' should be 'allowed to stay.'
Trump pointed to immigration as one of the areas in which he wanted to work with Democrats, answering yes when asked whether a deal could look like the creation of legal status for undocumented workers. He said, however, that people 'on the sort of pretty far right .. would like everybody taken out,' noting that some of them were in his administration. On Friday, Trump promoted Stephen Miller, who conceived of the mass deportation policy enacted since Trump returned to office, to White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles.
Trump also blamed 'bad messaging' for Republicans' crushing midterm losses last week and downplayed the Iran war's impact on economic troubles. 'I think it was bad messaging, maybe by me, but I would talk about it all the time,' he said, adding that the media did not cover 'positive news for me. So I have to do it myself. I have to get it out there.' Pressed by CBS News' Ross Douthat about what the bad message was, Trump said, 'We couldn't get the word across.'
The White House has mostly been without a press secretary since late August, after Karoline Leavitt left the administration. Katie Zacharia briefly replaced Leavitt but departed after just five days.
Trump also addressed his business dealings when Douthat asked about his net worth having increased by nearly $3 billion since he returned to office. His initial response was, 'So did everyone's.'
Forbes puts Trump's net worth at $7 billion and reported that it rose by $2.7 billion since he was elected in 2024 for a second term. His financial disclosure forms show he has made $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency earnings. 'I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don't care. I have a lot of money, and far more than I ever thought I'd have. And I guess it's gone up. I don't even know,' Trump said, adding that one of his sons 'watches over money' and that the two do not discuss finances.
Trump's sons founded a cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, two years ago. Trump himself is a co-owner, and investors include Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and national security adviser for the United Arab Emirates.
'I think if I told you that story and it was about the Biden family, if I said Joe Biden is the part-owner of a company and it has all of these investments from the Middle East, you would say, That sounds corrupt, right?' Douthat said, asking Trump how his stake in the company is different. 'Because I know nothing about it,' Trump answered, adding that he did not know whether foreign investors in the company believe they are buying influence.
