Caitlin Dickerson

President Trump is changing course, shifting his tone.

That's Caitlin Dickerson, a staff writer at The Atlantic.

I think part of that is him taking a look at the video of these two most violent incidents and also just hearing from lots of people who are calling into question these narratives and him in real time trying to figure out the best way to proceed to try to hold on to his power and the support that he has.

I think it's all optics, right?

And I've reported on Trump from the very beginning of his entrance into national politics.

He was not somebody who was personally passionate about immigration enforcement to the extent that he was going to hang his career on it.

You know, Trump began to embrace immigration enforcement when he saw that speeches Stephen Miller had written for him in 2016 moving forward were

were very popular at his rallies.

He was getting a huge response from people who'd come to watch him talk about his policy agenda.

And so he moved closer and closer to this issue of immigration as he saw that it was helping him win support and win power.

And I think that's the same reason why we're seeing the modulation of the message that's happening now.

because we have video and photo evidence of the harshest versions of this enforcement campaign, and they're incontrovertible.

And he can see the public questioning these efforts and is responding in kind.

So to talk about the history of ICE, quickly go back to 9-11 and a terrorist attack that shook the nation.

And the Bush administration decided they had to do whatever they could to prevent another such attack.

A 9-11 commission that was formed came up with this idea of a Department of Homeland Security.

So DHS was created for the first time.

And within it, this new federal agency, ICE, was established at the same time.

Since then, the mission has been the same, but there's this disconnect that has existed throughout this period, where, again, DHS and, by proxy, ICE were created to prevent a future terrorist attack, and yet ICE's work has always involved...

not focusing on terrorism and counterterrorism, but focusing on arresting and deporting immigrants in the United States without legal status.