I truly, truly do not intend for this to come across as defense of Trump in any way. I find him to be a despicable creation of essentially every single negative human vice and characteristic. That said, I don't think he is particularly bloodthirsty. People in his orbit like Stephen Miller? Absolutely. Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, maybe even JD Vance? Almost certainly. But Trump, though a malignant narcissist and entirely self-absorbed and obsessed with wealth and power at all costs, doesn't strike me as someone who revels in the fact that a 37-year-old mother and a 37-year-old ICU nurse were executed in cold blood by ICE agents. Stephen Miller? Again, absolutely. But I don't think Trump himself is nearly as unmoved by these brutal executions as are several of his closest deputies.
That's why, in combination with his TACO nature, we see him retreating on this. He knows how badly damaging this has been for his administration, and he cares about that (only to the extent that it could cost him power and by extension wealth, but still). If people like Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, or even JD Vance were truly in charge, this thing would get way, way worse.