Donald Trump’s demands for Republican officials to “nationalize” elections have animated far-right media that has thrived for years on the president’s bogus narratives of “stolen” and “rigged” outcomes in contests he didn’t win.
Now, his former adviser Steve Bannon claims federal immigration officers will “surround the polls” in midterm elections this fall, dovetailing the president’s election threats with the administration’s efforts to deport millions of people, a campaign that has paralyzed Democratic-led cities across the country.
“You’re damn right we’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon said on his War Room podcast Tuesday. “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”
Trump’s surge of federal immigration officers into Democratic-led cities has terrorized people — including citizens and other legal residents – into staying home and forced schools and restaurants to close over fears of wrongful arrest or racial profiling.
Democrats and voting rights advocates fear that a threat of ICE “surrounding” polling places could similarly suppress voter turnout.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles dismissed any suggestion that Trump would deploy federal officers or the military to the polls as “categorically false” in a recent interview with Vanity Fair.
Under the Constitution, state and local authorities are responsible for administering elections, not the federal government.
“Let’s put you on notice again: ICE is going to be around the polls in the 2026 midterm elections,” Bannon said.
His remarks echo a conspiracy theory that Democratic officials are relying on illegal votes cast by ineligible immigrants, the so-called “great replacement” theory that has taken root in Republican politics and Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.
One day earlier, Trump told former FBI official Dan Bongino, “These people were brought to our country to vote and they vote illegally.”
“Amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on it,” he said. “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over.’”
He said Republican officials “should take over the voting in at least 15 places” and “nationalize” voting in defiance of the Constitution because those places “are so crooked.”
Trump doubled down on his comments to “nationalize” election administration during an Oval Office press conference that afternoon.
“If you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” Trump said. “I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do them anyway.”
He suggested his administration “should do something” if states are not “honest” about their elections.
Trump pointed to Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta — cities with large Black populations that lean Democratic — as too corrupt to hold their own elections. Trump lost their respective states in the 2020 presidential election.
“Look at some of the places — that horrible corruption on elections — and the federal government should not allow that. The federal government should get involved,” Trump said. “These are agents of the federal government to count the vote. If they can’t count the vote legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.”
Election officials nationwide are sounding the alarm over the president’s latest threats ahead of midterm elections, with the balance of power in Congress — and the future of Trump’s remaining years in office — at stake.
Republicans are struggling to hold on to a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, and the president has publicly feared a wave of impeachment proceedings against him should Democrats win control.
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