Trump told "60 Minutes" his immigration policy was too tough. Then he promoted Stephen Miller.

[0:00] It's been less than a week since voters gave a striking rebuke of President Trump [0:05] and Republicans' last two years in power, and the commander-in-chief is discussing it all [0:09] with 60 Minutes. The president exclusively sat down with Ross Douthat for his first sit-down [0:14] interview since the midterms. He said his aggressive immigration crackdown contributed [0:19] to his party's losses. Listen. I think it both helped and hurt. I think I got an A plus for [0:25] closing up the border. I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out, but I get hurt because [0:31] we also took people that had good jobs that created one violation for breaking of the law, [0:38] and that was that they came into the country illegally. So you think your deportation policy [0:42] went too far? It was too tough. I think it might be too tough, yeah. [0:46] But Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer isn't buying this admission from the president. [0:51] Schumer wrote that Trump installing Stephen Miller, the architect of the immigration crackdown, [0:56] as his new chief of staff is, quote, not a course correction, it's a promotion. [1:01] CBS News White House and politics reporter Aaron Navarro kicks off our hour from our DC bureau [1:05] with more on this. Aaron, good Monday morning to you. What more did President Trump have to say [1:10] about the widespread GOP losses over the midterms? Good morning, Ariel. The president repeated his [1:16] argument that we've heard from him in recent weeks that because his name was not on the ballot, [1:20] and despite his arguments on the campaign show that people should vote like it is, [1:24] his base did not come out to vote. And he somewhat admitted, though, that the tough political [1:30] environment his party was in was caused by frustrations with higher gas and grocery prices. [1:36] But take a listen to more of what he said. Well, number one, I was not on the ballot, [1:41] but I campaigned hard for some people. And I think if I was on the ballot, it would have been a much [1:46] different situation because you saw the level of popularity and love. There was love with massive [1:53] rallies. You had to transfer those voters, however, to candidates that they didn't like. But there's [2:00] something beyond that. They didn't like the war. They didn't like the fact that gasoline went up [2:05] because I had it down at a low. And there's a great dislike, incredibly, for Israel. [2:11] Now, on the candidates, the president was pressed on his role in that as he had backed Attorney [2:17] General Ken Paxton over incumbent Senator John Cornyn in Texas, as well as Darlene Graham in that [2:23] surprise South Carolina race. The president said he didn't even think Cornyn could win in Texas [2:28] and said he backed Darlene out of respect to the late Lindsey Graham. But while you got the sense [2:33] overall that Trump knew that the economy was a core piece of his party's midterm loss, he blamed it [2:39] on the messaging. Not so much his decision itself to start the Iran war. [2:43] Yeah, really a fascinating conversation. And what else did the president have to say about the state [2:48] of the war with Iran? He said he's not going to escalate the Iran war now that the midterms are done, [2:54] which is something that has been floated before in reporting and from his own answers. And he was [2:59] asked, what is the long-term vision for the Strait of Hormuz? Is the U.S. going to have ships [3:04] continue to shepherd and guard tankers coming through indefinitely? Take a listen to what the [3:09] president said. Well, I'm not looking to. I don't think there's any reason to. I don't think [3:14] there's any reason to. Look. They still have nuclear material, right? They have nothing. It's buried [3:19] under thousands of tons of rock. At the end of this whole thing, those countries that we've protected [3:26] are going to pay us back any and all costs that we've had for the war. Because without us, [3:31] they wouldn't exist. Without us, Israel wouldn't exist. Now, not many clear answers in terms of how [3:37] he'd reach a negotiation to end the war. But the president also said he still has confidence [3:41] in Secretary of the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. He credited him for the Maduro [3:46] operation in Venezuela and the initial Iran war strikes. There had been reporting that he could [3:51] be on the outs. But so far, it seems like Hegseth has security in his post. All right. We'll see [3:56] how long that lasts. Aaron Navarro in D.C. Aaron, thanks. Stephen Miller takes over as President [4:01] Trump's chief of staff today. Shortly after taping with 60 Minutes on Friday, [4:06] President Trump announced his promotion and Susie Wiles' departure. Miller is seen as the [4:12] architect of the administration's hardline stance on immigration. Now, during that 60 Minutes [4:18] interview, President Trump discussed the sentiment on that topic inside his administration. [4:23] But there's a group of people that I would say on the sort of pretty far right that would like [4:30] everybody taken out. There's a group of people. Do any of those people work in your administration? [4:35] Are they in the building with us right now? No, no. Well, there are a lot of those people. [4:39] Then there's also people that are more modified on that. In other words, get the killers out, [4:43] get all the rough ones out, get the drug dealers out. But let the people that are here, [4:50] and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years, work a deal for them. [4:54] Here to help break down the president's response is CBS News immigration correspondent Camilo Montoya-Galvez. [5:01] Camilo, good morning. Good morning. [5:02] President Trump there in this interview saying his immigration crackdown was too tough. [5:07] We've not heard that kind of language from him before. What did you make of it? [5:10] Well, the president, Errol, is saying something that has been echoed by the American public last week [5:15] during the midterm elections. About 58 percent of the American public, according to our own exit [5:20] polling, said that his administration's crackdown on illegal immigration was too heavy-handed, [5:25] too tough. And that was particularly an issue in states like Texas, where, as you know, [5:29] Latinos swung heavily towards Democrats and rebuked President Trump, in part because of concerns [5:34] about ICE operations and the fact that some Latinos believe that those ICE operations have gone [5:40] too far, have been too indiscriminate and heavy-handed, and have not been focusing solely on the worst [5:45] of the worst, as the administration promised. The president notably also said that he appears [5:51] to be open to an immigration compromise with Democratic leaders, who, of course, [5:55] will take control of both chambers of Congress. That could include legalizing some people in the [6:00] country illegally. The president talked about a maid in a hotel and others who are here in the country [6:05] illegally but don't have a criminal record. That is a significant concession from the president. [6:10] As you know, he has promised to deport everyone here in the country illegally. [6:14] But it's important to underscore that the president has previously also expressed sympathy [6:18] for people in the country illegally who don't have documents and has expressed a willingness to [6:24] work with Democrats on the issue. And, of course, an immigration compromise has not happened [6:27] for the past 30 years. Right. And you talk about a message from voters during the midterms. [6:32] Every House seat is now, every House seat along the U.S. border is now represented by a Democrat. [6:38] So, President Trump says, hey, he was too tough, but then he promotes, essentially, his, the architect [6:43] of this policy, Stephen Miller, to chief of staff. What does that tell us? [6:48] No, it's a striking juxtaposition because I was just talking to administration sources over the [6:52] weekend, and they see Miller's promotion to the top posts in the White House as chief of staff [6:56] as an indication that the administration will not be scaling back or pulling back from its aggressive [7:02] crackdown on illegal immigration. In many ways, the officials that I spoke to see that as a doubling [7:08] down on the administration's mass deportation effort. Miller, of course, during the first Trump [7:13] administration oversaw that travel ban that mostly affected most of the majority countries. He was [7:18] involved in that zero-tolerance policy that separated thousands of children from their parents. And [7:23] over the past two years has overseen the aggressive ICE operations across the country, [7:27] has also overseen significant restrictions on legal immigration. For example, the U.S. refugee [7:33] program, Arrow, has been effectively shut down except for white Afrikaner. So, it will be notable to [7:39] see if there is any reduced immigration enforcement on the part of the administration. But if any, [7:45] if Miller is any indication of where things are going, it's going to be doubling down on the [7:51] crackdown on immigration. Yeah, really important insight there on this. Camilla, thank you very much.