President Donald J. Trump vehemently denied that there would be any amnesty for illegal aliens during his watch.
Trump had unsettled his MAGA supporters with remarks made during his interview on Sunday’s edition of CBS News flagship “60 Minutes” that were interpreted by some to be a cave-in on one of the core tenets of his presidency and the movement that he has led.
During his sit-down with CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat, Trump was asked about working with the incoming Democrat congressional majority and if they could find common ground, replying that “I’d love to do something on immigration” and stunningly saying that his policies on illegal immigration may have been “too tough.”
The remarks roiled MAGA with many smelling a betrayal, but during Monday’s daily press briefing, the president sought to quell the brewing outrage by insisting that amnesty is a non-starter, especially now that immigration hawk Stephen Miller has been installed as his new White House chief of staff.
President Trump says there will be no amnesty:
Reporter: “Mr. President, you told 60 Minutes that you felt your deportation policy may have gone too far. But then you named the architect of that policy, Stephen Miller to be your Chief of Staff. Have you told him that you want changes to the deportation policy?”
President Trump: “No. We have a very strong deportation policy. There is no amnesty. No anything. We keep that. But we focus on the worst of the worst.”
— Steve Cortes (@SteveCortes) November 9, 2026
“No. We have a very strong deportation policy,” Trump said in response to a question from CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes on changes in immigration policy.
“There is no amnesty. No anything,” the president insisted. “We keep that, but we focus on the worst of the worst. We want to get the murderers out.”
“Joe Biden allowed, well, 25 million people to come in; of that, 11,888 murderers. Most of whom committed more than one murder,” Trump continued, referring to the invasion that took place under his open-borders predecessor with an untold number of violent criminals among the migrant hordes.
“We’ve gotten most of them. We want to get the worst of the worst, and then we’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “But they came in illegally. Many of them have good jobs now. They are productive. Some of them are even paying taxes, and we’re seeing what’s going to happen.”
“There won’t be amnesty,” he pledged. “Somebody suggested, will there be amnesty? No. They came in; they knew the law, and we’re working with different groups. My policy hasn’t changed, but … absolutely the worst of the worst. They allowed people to come in from prisons.”
Trump also stated that some foreign countries have “emptied their prisons” into the United States.
“The President never said the word amnesty,” a White House official told Fox News Digital after Trump’s remarks landed with a thud with some of his most loyal supporters.
“Now, there is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out, and there’s a large part of the country that think that they should be allowed to stay if they’re good people working in a landscaping company, or working in a hotel, or doing something, right? And in some cases, paying taxes. And there’s a large group of people who think that they should be allowed to stay,” Trump told Douthat.
“Too tough … I think it might be too tough, yeah,” the president added of his no-nonsense deportation policies.
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