Steve Bannon calls ICE at airports a good ‘test run’ for deployment to 2026 midterm polls

Steve Bannon calls ICE at airports a good ‘test run’ for deployment to 2026 midterm polls

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 24, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

Right-wing podcaster and former Trump White House political strategist Steve Bannon on Monday said that President Donald Trump’s deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports was a preview of what could be expected later this year at polling places across the country.During a Monday episode of his “War Room” podcast, Bannon said that the Trump administration “can use what’s happening with these ICE [agents] at the airports, we can use this as a test run, as a test case, to really perfect ICE’s involvement in the 2026 midterm elections.”

BANNON (Epstein’s PR Guy): “We can use ICE helping out at airports as a test run to really perfect ICE’s involvement in the 2026 midterms.”P.S. — Non-citizens don’t vote and they know it pic.twitter.com/hPFaI9Ue9z— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) March 24, 2026

Bannon’s guest, MAGA influencer Mike Davis, agreed that ICE should be sent to polling places during this year’s midterms to ensure no undocumented immigrants are casting ballots.

“If you’re an American citizen, you should be happy ICE is there,” Davis said. “So you don’t have illegal aliens canceling out your vote.”

There is no evidence that undocumented immigrants vote in any significant numbers in US elections.

As The New York Times reported in January, the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s second term has been conducting a wide-ranging review of voter registration data and so far has found almost no evidence of non-citizens voting in past elections.

“Out of 49.5 million voter registrations that have been checked, the department referred around 10,000 cases to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation of noncitizenship, or roughly .02% of

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Start the steal? Inside Trump’s effort to rig the midterm elections

Start the steal? Inside Trump’s effort to rig the midterm elections

With the public outraged over the US-Israeli war with Iran, the Epstein Files coverup, and a cost-of-living crisis, even President Donald Trump’s base of supporters is fracturing, and Republicans are fixing to get slammed in the upcoming midterm elections. Perhaps that explains why Trump and MAGA Republicans are obsessively focused on attacking voting rights, taking federal control over the electoral system, and preemptively casting doubt on the midterm election results before the elections even happen. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones, about MAGA Republicans’ effort to rig the midterms—and what can be done to stop it.

Guest:

Ari Berman is Mother Jones‘ national voting rights correspondent. He’s the author of the new book Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People—and the Fight to Resist It, as well as Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America.

Additional links/info:

Ari Berman, Mother Jones, “The world is on fire. Gas prices are rising. Republicans are trying to make it harder to vote”

Ari Berman, Mother Jones, “The GOP’s “show us your papers” bill is the latest effort to help Trump take over elections”

Credits:

Studio Production / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino

Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Welcome everyone to the Real News Network Podcast. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. I’m the editor-in-chief here at The Real News, and it’s so great to have you all with us. Between the federal government’s coverup of the Epstein Files, President Trump’s catastrophic decision to plunge the US into a war with Iran, an

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Trump Says He’ll Only Accept 2026 Midterms If He Deems Them “Honest”

In an interview with NBC News’s Tom Llamas on Wednesday, President Donald Trump indicated that it’s possible he won’t accept the outcome of the 2026 midterms. Asked whether he’d respect the results of the elections that will be held later this year, Trump said he would only do so if he deemed the outcomes to be legitimate. “I will [accept the midterm outcomes] if the elections are honest…
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Bannon Calls for ICE to Engage in Voter Intimidation During the Midterms

On February 3, as Donald Trump was doubling down on his push to “nationalize” elections, Steve Bannon, MAGA’s version of Rasputin, promised his War Room podcast audience that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be deployed to swarm polling places during the upcoming midterm elections. “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November…
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‘Beginning of the chaos’: FBI raid in Georgia seen as ominous sign of Trump plans for 2026 midterms

‘Beginning of the chaos’: FBI raid in Georgia seen as ominous sign of Trump plans for 2026 midterms

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Jan. 29, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

The FBI’s Wednesday raid on an elections center in Fulton County, Georgia is raising alarms about President Donald Trump’s plans to disrupt the 2026 midterm elections.

Shortly after FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operations center to search for materials related to the 2020 presidential election, Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory warned that this kind of operation would likely be spreading to other counties and states.

“Fulton County is right now the target, the only county right now fighting over an election that already happened,” she said, referring to Trump’s election loss that he has refused to concede more than five years after it happened. “But it is coming to a place near you. This is the beginning of the chaos of 2026 that is about to ensue.”

Commissioner Mo Ivory: Fulton County is right now the target, the only county right now fighting over an election that already happened. But it is coming to a place near you. This is the beginning of the chaos of 2026 that is about to ensue. pic.twitter.com/0HvPMMoQO8— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) January 28, 2026

In a Wednesday interview on MSNOW, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) described the raid on the elections center as a “seismic event” that should be a flashing red light for US voters.

“This should have people across the country absolutely shook,” Ossoff said. “This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office. [Trump’s] conspiracy theories about the 2020 election have been based in Georgia from the very start… this

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California Republicans Sue to Overturn Voter-Backed Prop 50 Redistricting Vote

California Republicans are suing state officials in hopes of invalidating a ballot initiative that passed on Tuesday, which is aimed at combating the effects of a nationwide Republican gerrymandering scheme. The initiative, known as Proposition 50, seeks to temporarily suspend California’s independent redistricting commission in order to craft maps that would likely give Democrats an…
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