After facing a torrent of pushback and harsh criticism from military veterans, Donald Trump has backed off plans to potentially pardon convicted and alleged U.S. war criminals—at least for now.

The president was personally taken aback by the nearly across-the-board pushback to his administration’s consideration of pardons for several U.S. servicemen accused of grisly crimes in war zones, two people familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast.

The sources also noted that Trump, while monitoring much of the reaction in newspapers and cable news last month, had not expected the blowback to be as fierce and widespread among veterans as it was. Eventually, he decided to tap the brakes on the highly controversial idea, with the possibility of revisiting it in the future.