First lady Melania Trump's private complaints got the president to sour on one of his top aides, a rare warning that actually landed.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that after Melania Trump objected when acquaintances of hers were deported, President Donald Trump began telling aides that Stephen Miller, the driving force behind his immigration crackdown, had pushed too far.
Trump went back and forth on immigration throughout the year, according to the report, at times telling aides he wanted a harsher crackdown. Republicans in Texas and Florida privately raised concerns with the White House, and on Election Day, counties with overwhelmingly Hispanic populations broke heavily for Democrats.
Most other red flags didn't get through, The Journal reported. When aides brought him polling in the spring and summer showing voters were worried about his handling of affordability, Trump dismissed the numbers as fake, a senior administration official told The Journal. He pointed out in one meeting that he hadn't commissioned any polls in 2016 and won anyway.
At times, Trump told aides he didn't care about the midterms at all, according to the official, who said the president had wearied of domestic politics and cared more about foreign affairs and how history would remember him.
Allies including Newt Gingrich and Sean Hannity quietly pressed him to focus on costs, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune repeatedly tried to raise affordability during calls Trump made about scrapping the filibuster. When Trump wanted to veto a popular bipartisan housing bill, he told one adviser nobody cared about it. Aides eventually talked him into letting it become law without his signature.
Trump also pushed aside stronger Senate candidates in four states in favor of loyalists, The Journal reported, and Democrats won all four races.
"It really didn't have to be this way," said Rep. Ralph Norman, who lost South Carolina's Republican Senate primary after Trump intervened.
A White House official told The Journal that Trump wasn't indecisive and always sought out feedback, while advisers credited him with holding 30 rallies for candidates.