The Art of the Deal has never really included a chapter on apologies. For Donald Trump, backing down isn’t just rare; it is usually viewed as a fatal character flaw. Yet, on Wednesday, the script flipped. In a moment that left seasoned Washington observers squinting at their screens, the President offered a mea culpa regarding his administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
But before anyone starts banking on a fundamental shift in the President’s psyche, Gretchen Carlson has a bridge to sell you.
The former Fox News host, a veteran of the conservative media ecosystem that often acts as Donald Trump’s primary feedback loop, suggests this sudden onset of empathy isn’t organic. Speaking on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, Carlson didn’t mince words about the mechanics behind this pivot.
WOW! NBC was just forced to say something TRUE about President Trump for once: “You’ve had success on immigration! Illegal crossings at historic lows!”
TRUMP: “It’s so nice you said that…that’s called good reporting, fair reporting!” pic.twitter.com/6YCVfyFNwt
— 🇺🇸⭐️OUR-VOICES⭐️🇺🇸 (@iswho) February 5, 2026
“Somebody got to him,” she theorized, piercing the veil of the White House’s messaging strategy. It is a cynical, yet likely accurate, assessment of a leader who views policy almost entirely through the prism of popularity.
Sitting down with NBC News, President Donald Trump admitted something startling: his administration might have needed a ‘softer touch’ with immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. It was a comment that seemed to belong to a different president entirely. This is, after all, the man who has spent years defending a deportation regime he claims targets only the “worst of the worst.”
Donald Trump on Mike Johnson:
“He’ll say, ‘Sir, may we pray?’
I’ll say, ‘Excuse me? We’re having lunch.’”
The same man who markets himself as God’s chosen leader can’t sit through a prayer. pic.twitter.com/cl8nWyZrqW
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) February 5, 2026
Watching Donald Trump suddenly pick holes in his own strategy is enough to give anyone whiplash. But Gretchen Carlson isn’t buying the transformation. Her take is pragmatic rather than hopeful: it is not about a change of heart, it is about a crash in the data.
“Presumably, the polls are the first thing that got to him,” she noted, pointing out that Donald Trump is “absolutely cratering” on the issue.
It offers a rare look under the bonnet of the West Wing. When the red-meat rhetoric starts chasing away voters instead of energising them, the messaging gets a revamp. That “softer touch” remark doesn’t feel like a genuine moment of clarity so much as a damage-control exercise—a frantic bid to stop the polling numbers from sliding further into the abyss. But as Carlson notes, betting on this version of Donald Trump to stick around is a risky move.
There is a long-standing theory in Washington that Donald Trump’s position at any given moment depends entirely on who had the last word in his ear. Carlson alluded to this mercurial nature, expressing deep reservations about whether this regret has any shelf life.
Watch closely: Donald Trump is plotting to rig the midterms.
In just the past 2 weeks, his AG demanded that Minnesota turn over voter rolls, his DNI raided 2020 election ballots in Georgia, & he called to ‘nationalize’ our elections.
We must mobilize to protect our democracy. pic.twitter.com/GmiNzZIKJR
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) February 4, 2026
While admitting the words were “nice to hear,” Carlson warned against taking them to the bank. She highlighted a disturbing pattern of inconsistency, recalling how Donald Trump seemed to show empathy regarding the situation in Minnesota—where two US citizens were murdered—only to ‘completely flip again’ when pressed on the red carpet just last Friday.
This oscillation is what makes the NBC comments so suspect. “I’m worried now that these comments were from the last person who spoke to him before he went out to do this interview,” Carlson admitted.
It suggests a presidency that doesn’t really steer so much as it drifts, pushed along by whichever advisor—or terrifying polling spreadsheet—happens to be in the room last. If Carlson is right, this isn’t a pivot. It is likely just a brief intermission before the usual programming resumes.
Inquisitr has reached out to President Donald Trump’s reps for comments.
