Former Senator Markwayne Mullin speaks to members of the media near the Senate chamber floor at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., March 5, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump's allies are reportedly "scrambling," per a new report from The Daily Beast, trying to avoid another one of his campaign promises looking like a flop as discontent brews among hardcore MAGA "hawks."
As the outlet reported Friday, Trump's "immigration point men" are pushing to accelerate the administration's mass deportation agenda once again, fearing that things have slowed too much since they pumped the brakes "slightly" on the initiaitive earlier in the year. The de-escalation was prompted by widespread public backlash to ICE and CBP's harsh and inhumane tactics, particularly in the wake of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Now, there is a growing tide of anger at this retreat, even if it was slight, from some of Trump's more hardcore anti-immigrant acolytes.
"The most hawkish of the president’s allies believe that Trump has reneged on his promise to oversee a wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigrants," The Daily Beast explained. "Trump campaigned on the promise to roll out mass deportations and secure the southern border with Mexico. By May 2025, Trump’s immigration goons were demanding that federal agents arrest up to 3,000 people a day with a view to deporting them."
These concerns are growing with an eye towards the coming midterms, with fears growing that Trump might end up looking like he botched yet another campaign promise. Voters, even within his dedicated MAGA base, are already feeling severely let down as he has failed to tame high prices and gotten the country embroiled in more overseas conflicts.
“You ain’t seen s—— yet,” Trump border official Tom Homan said on Tuesday. “Mass deportations are coming.”
Alongside Homan's amped up promise, newly appointed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has also insisted that deportations have not "slowed down."
“It’s political rhetoric designed to meet both camps,” a person close to the Trump White House explained. “Which is no surprise, it’s a political administration trying to win midterms.”
“Knocking door to door, and looking just for the worst of the worst and things like that, you’re not going to be able to ramp up the numbers,” another anonymous source close to the administration added. “I get the sense that they’re trying to have their cake and eat it, too.”
“There’s a lot of sort of outside voices who say we’ve stopped all deportations, we’ve stopped all border security,” an anonymous White House official said. “That’s just not true. It may not necessarily be in the news right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.”