Now Trump Officials Are Choosing to Talk About ICE At the Polls
A new line has just arrived
I mentioned in yesterday’s edition of Where Things Stand that the Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, was offering a new retort to questions swirling around whether President Trump plans to order Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to monitor polling locations in the midterms. The idea was injected into the debate largely thanks to Steve Bannon, whose raison d’etre these days is to provoke enough to stay relevant, but the softness of Trump officials when asked about the proposition has done little to allay fears.
“Do illegal aliens vote? Homan said on The Charlie Kirk Show this week when asked if ICE would show up at the polls. “I mean, at the end of the day, what are they afraid of? And they say illegal aliens don’t vote. Well, look, you know, part of DHS’s job is to secure elections, and I’m not going to say, you know, you know, what is our plan going forward, but if only American citizens can vote, I don’t see what they’re worried about.” (He is only partially correct in his assertion that DHS plays a role in securing elections, which you can read more about here.)
Homan apparently pioneered this more sophisticated, trollier deviation. As I have noted several times recently, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons contorted themselves to avoid directly answering the question when pressed during congressional hearings.
Now, this could be the administration’s new line on the issue. During an interview with Matthew Schlapp at the Conservative Political Action Conference today, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was discussing the administration’s voter ID fix and brought up the issue of ICE in elections without prompting.
“Election integrity should be the least partisan issue we have. Like, why are there objections to sending ICE agents to polling places? Illegals can’t vote,” he said, to applause and shouts of “amen.”
The new line is in line with an administration largely driven by what it imagines to be the owners of libraries; If non-citizens don’t vote in elections as Democrats claim, then what are Democrats so worried about? (The answer to this question is at least twofold: Federal agents stalking lines at polling places will intimidate voters. Their presence could also spark protests; it would serve Trump’s goals of inflaming tensions at polling places in communities whose election results he intends to contest.)
But their liberal campaign undermines their rationale for trying to force passage of the SAVE America Act through Congress before the midterms. The entire argument for the legislation hinges on Trump and Republicans’ belief in the myth that noncitizens vote en masse in federal elections.
It’s difficult to disentangle conspiracy theory and bad faith here: whether Trump actually intends to act on the myth of non-citizen voting, whether this is part of a plan to suppress the Democratic vote, or whether this is all that Steve Bannon is clamoring for attention – with an unfortunate degree of success – may not be clear for several months.
—Nicole LaFond
Trump defends his ‘cheating by mail’
Even though President Trump was present in Florida during early voting for the recent special election, he chose to vote by mail because it worked better with his schedule as president, he said today in layman’s terms. It’s something he’s allowed to do under his state’s election laws — and something he and his Republican allies in Congress are trying to ban.
Trump was asked during a White House Cabinet meeting Thursday why he voted by mail — a practice that figures prominently in his conspiracy theories of mass voter fraud — in Florida when he was in his district during early voting and could have voted in person.
“You know what, because I’m president of the United States, and because I’m president of the United States, I voted by mail for the election that took place in Florida,” he said. “I decided I was going to vote by mail because I couldn’t be there, because I had a lot of different things going on. »
The hypocrisy really doesn’t matter at this point: He just called mail-in voting “mail-in cheating” on Monday.
—Nicole LaFond
Congressman questions Wall Street ‘sophistication’ after Iran’s roller coaster of markets
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), who is an assistant ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee and a member of its defense subcommittee, explained to TPM this week how the White House’s requests for funding for the Iran war have become a nearly $1 trillion “mess.” He also shared his thoughts on the markets’ madness since President Donald Trump launched strikes against Iran last month.
“I rarely criticize investors on Wall Street, but I really wonder who is making these investments, because the president makes an announcement where he says he’s talking to the Iranians, about opening the Strait of Hormuz, and gas prices are falling, and the investment market is going up and it’s like you get your information from Donald Trump and you rely on him? I mean, really?” Morelle asked.
Morelle was referring to a phenomenon in recent weeks where Wall Street has responded optimistically to the president’s varying and shifting statements on the war, including expressions of optimism about its rapid conclusion and assertions of a ceasefire deal that has not come to fruition. These comments caused sharp rebounds on the Dow Jones, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500, despite fears of a rise in oil prices caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and inflation linked to the massive costs of the war. This phenomenon has led TPM’s Josh Marshall to speculate that markets may be suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.” Morelle offered a similarly perplexing view.
“Is it like a bunch of kindergartners deciding what to spend money on? » he asked. “I mean, that doesn’t say much about the sophistication of Wall Street investment firms.”
For his part – with Congress largely left in the dark – Morelle is clearly pessimistic about Trump’s ability to stem rising oil prices or whether the president has a real plan for war in general.
Despite periodic rebounds, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P are all down since the war began. On Thursday, the main stock indices were all close to session lows. Investor’s Business Daily attributed the poor performance to skepticism over Trump’s latest confident statements.
“Trump also noted encouraging signs on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, but that did not seem to scare stock market bears today,” the trade publication writes.
Wall Street is clearly starting to understand that Trump’s word may not be worth betting on.
—Hunter Walker and Josh Kovensky
In case you missed it
Josh Marshall: Trump Casts His Spell of Drama of the Day While the World Moves On
The latest news from Emine Yücel: Senate Republicans send ‘last and final’ DHS offer to Democrats
New edition of La Franchise released this afternoon: ICE is in airports. State bigots worry about midterm elections
Josh Kovensky and Hunter Walker: A member of a key House committee explains how financing the Iran war became a nearly $1 trillion ‘mess’
Morning memo: The historical appropriation of Trump’s Iranian misadventure
Layla A. Jones: DOGE damage continues in Washington DC, where inequality is widening as a result
Yesterday’s most read story
Not so fast
What we read
White House rejects Elon Musk’s offer to pay TSA workers during DHS shutdown
Fox News’ United Front for Trump’s Iran War May Collapse
Trump eyes White House Treaty Room for latest renovation project
