FACT SHEET: Trump Says He "Hasn't Thought" About Sending ICE To The Polls. His Administration Has Been Talking About It For Months.

Asked by TIME on September 28 whether he plans to dispatch ICE agents to polling places this November, Donald Trump said: “Haven't thought of it.” That's a lie. Since February, Trump himself, his press secretary, his FBI director, his Homeland Security secretary, his Attorney General, his border czar, and other MAGA luminaries have all publicly discussed deploying armed federal agents or troops to polling places.

February 2026: Trump says Republicans should “take over the voting” in up to 15 places. On The Dan Bongino Show, Trump said: "The Republicans should say, 'We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least — many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

February 2026: Steve Bannon: “We're gonna have ICE surround the polls.” On his War Room podcast, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said: “You're damn right we're gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.”

February 2026: Karoline Leavitt won't guarantee ICE stays away from polling places. Asked by a reporter whether she could guarantee ICE agents wouldn't be near polling locations in November, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “I can't guarantee that an ICE agent won't be around a polling location in November. I mean, that's frankly a very silly hypothetical question.”

February 2026: DHS denies it, calling the idea “disinformation.” . On a call with state election officials, then-DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Election Integrity Heather Honey said: "Any suggestion that ICE is going to be present at polling places is simply disinformation. There will be no ICE presence at polling locations." Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said officials on the call met a "stunned silence" when asked to publicly reaffirm that states, not the federal government, run elections.

March 2026: Markwayne Mullin won't rule out ICE at the polls in his confirmation hearing. Pressed by Sen. Elissa Slotkin during his confirmation hearing to become Homeland Security Secretary, Markwayne Mullin said he would dispatch ICE officers to a polling site only for a "specific threat," not for "intimidation" — but would not rule it out, declining to engage further on hypotheticals.

March 2026: Tom Homan won't rule it out, asks “what are they afraid of?” On "The Charlie Kirk Show," White House border czar Tom Homan declined to rule out an ICE presence at polling places, saying: “Are illegal aliens voting? I mean, bottom line is, what are they afraid of?”

March 2026: Todd Blanche, at CPAC: “Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?” Then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche asked a CPAC audience: “Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places? Illegals can't vote. It doesn't make any sense.” When the moderator corrected him — noncitizens legally cannot vote but are not barred from being physically present — Blanche agreed anyway: “Amen, that's right, what is the objection?”

May 2026: Trump announces an “Election Integrity Army.” In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that Republicans would deploy an "Election Integrity Army" in "every single State" for 2026, "much bigger and stronger" than in 2024. He did not specify who would be part of it or how large it would be.

May 2026: Trump on ICE at the polls: “I'd do anything necessary.” Boarding Marine One, Trump was asked by a reporter: "Would you send the National Guard or ICE to voting locations in November?" He replied: “I'd do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections. We have to have honest elections.”

May 2026: ICE agents swarm a vehicle outside a San Antonio polling site. During early voting for a Bexar County runoff primary, ICE agents converged on a vehicle in the parking lot of the Las Palmas Branch Library, an active polling site, in what began as a traffic stop. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar arrived and told the agents to leave, with a witness saying Salazar called the scene intimidating to voters. Days later, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones wrote to Secretary Mullin asking ICE to “take steps to not inadvertently deter or dissuade lawful U.S. voters from voting due to fear.”

June 2026: ICE vehicles show up at a California polling site. During California's primary election, ICE vehicles were spotted in the parking lot of a voting center in Ventura County.

June 2026 : Markwayne Mullin, pressed on CNN claimed that ICE agents would only be at polling places “to respond to a specific threat.” Asked by CNN's Kasie Hunt why ICE would need to be at polling places, Homeland Security Secretary Mullin said: "Because the only people who should be voting there is American citizens. There shouldn't be any immigration enforcement." He added that ICE agents could still respond to a specific threat, such as a bomb threat, since they also have Special Response Teams.

August 2026: General Caine says the military "has no plans to send Federal military personnel” to the polls. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine wrote Sen. Slotkin that "the Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections," and no plans to use personnel "to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material." Separately, NORTHCOM commander Gen. Gregory Guillot said that if given an order to deploy, "I would look at it very closely."

September 2026: Markwayne Mullin says ICE could deploy to the polls for threats or warrants. As Homeland Security Secretary, Mullin told reporters in New York: "ICE isn't there to patrol the polling places. We're there to enforce specific threats" — and separately said ICE would appear at polling places for a threat or to serve a warrant on "someone that we have been actively tracking down."

September 2026: Tom Homan calls concern about ICE at polling places “another attempt to smear ICE and smear the president.” On Fox's "The Sunday Briefing," Homan told Jacqui Heinrich he has not seen "any operational plans or any discussions on any immigration enforcement operation at polling places," calling reports otherwise "another attack on ICE and this administration" and "another attempt to smear ICE and smear the president."

September 2026: Kash Patel refuses to rule out FBI agents at the polls. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked FBI Director Kash Patel: "Can you commit to the committee that you will not send FBI agents to the polls?" Patel replied: "On election day, the FBI will follow the law. If there's a reason to go there because there's been a violation of the law, we will. Otherwise, we won't." Sen. Peter Welch then raised a claim by Michigan's Republican gubernatorial nominee, Rep. John James, who told a podcaster that Patel "has said already that the FBI will have a presence leading up to Election Day in Michigan, in both West Michigan and in Southeast Michigan." Welch said: "I thought you weren't going to be sending people to the polls." Patel responded: "When did you hear that? It's just another lie."

September 2026: A Trump-endorsed Senate candidate says he's "fine" federal agents being sent to the polls. Asked about the possibility of federal forces at polling places, Rep. Mike Collins, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia, said: "The last thing we want is for people to not have confidence in the elections and not show up, so if that's something that they decide they need to look at, then that's fine with me."

October 2026: Trump in TIME: “Haven't thought of it.” Asked directly by TIME whether he plans to dispatch ICE agents to polling places in the midterms, Trump said: “Haven't thought of it.” Asked whether he would rule out declaring a state of emergency — invoking the Insurrection Act — ahead of the midterms, he said: "I don't rule anything out or in. We'll see." Asked if he'd ever used the Insurrection Act, he said: "No, I've never used it. I could use it. A lot of people think I should use it sometimes."