After months of pushing a hardline immigration crackdown, Trump is now asking his advisers to dial things down, at least in how it looks and sounds to the public. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, people familiar with internal conversations say Trump has been telling his top aides, and even discussing it with First Lady Melania Trump, that some of the deportation policies may have gone too far.
One phrase in particular seems to have bothered him — “mass deportation.” According to WSJ, he’s been told voters don’t like it, and he agrees. In private, Trump has reportedly said he wants the focus to be on going after “bad guys,” not creating panic in cities. “We’ve got to focus on the criminals,” he has told senior aides.
Trump signals reset on deportation push
According to the WSJ report, this reset isn’t coming out of nowhere. It’s being shaped in part by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who believes immigration, once one of Trump’s strongest issues, was starting to turn into a political headache ahead of the midterm elections.
The idea now is not just to change the language, but also what’s actually happening on the ground.
Early in his term, many voters backed Trump’s push to deport undocumented immigrants. But that mood appears to be shifting. A survey by The Washington Post and ABC News last month found that 58% of respondents felt Trump was “going too far” with deportations. That number was 48% just a year earlier.
Trump himself has also been frustrated with the kind of headlines the administration has been getting, especially during the tenure of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. According to people familiar with the matter, he even asked aides about some of her internal decisions, including how contracts were approved.
Senator Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s pick to replace Noem, has made it clear he wants to move away from the more confrontational style that has defined immigration enforcement in recent months. At his confirmation hearing, Mullin said he would push for better coordination with local authorities and scale back some of the more controversial tactics.
According to WSJ, behind the scenes, Trump’s advisers are trying to fine-tune how the issue is presented to voters. Polling shared with the president shows that the phrase “mass deportation” doesn’t land well. So now, the emphasis is on “criminals.”
One senior official told WSJ that Trump is also keen on showing visuals of hardened criminals being arrested, especially as elections get closer. The idea is to make the policy feel targeted, not sweeping.
A quieter ICE strategy takes shape
After Noem was fired, White House border czar Tom Homan, who has taken a lead role in immigration operations, has been pushing for a more measured approach. Instead of sweeping, high-profile raids in major Democratic cities like Chicago or Washington, the focus is moving toward more routine arrests, especially picking up individuals already flagged by local jails.
For now, those large, attention-grabbing operations have been paused, though officials say they could return later. Daily arrests have dropped to around 1,200 from over 1,500 during a particularly aggressive phase of operations in Minnesota.
Still, the White House insists nothing fundamental has changed.
“Nobody is changing the Administration’s immigration enforcement agenda. President Trump’s highest priority has always been the deportation of illegal alien criminals who endanger
However, not everyone on Trump’s side is comfortable with this change. Some of his longtime immigration allies worry that stepping back from “mass deportation” rhetoric could weaken enthusiasm among core supporters ahead of the midterms.