Donald Trump: I’ll probably go to heaven
President Donald Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast and said, “I’m probably going to go to heaven.”
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is not discussing plans to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling places during the 2026 midterm elections, rejecting a strategy proposed by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, the White House announced.
“I have never heard the president think that,” White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said in a Feb. 5 briefing with reporters.
“We cannot guarantee that ICE agents will not be around polling places in November,” she added. “All I can say is that I have not heard the president discuss any formal plan to have ICE outside of polling places.”
Bannon, who was a key architect of MAGA and a senior adviser to President Trump during his first term, told his followers on the Feb. 3 episode of the podcast “War Room” that “we’re going to have ICE surround the vote in November.”
“We’re not going to sit here and allow them to steal our country again,” Bannon said, pushing baseless claims similar to those made by President Trump that the 2024 election was rigged for Joe Biden. “And you can whine and cry and throw toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”
President Trump this week called on Republicans to “nationalize” the voting process and “take over” elections in about 15 states that don’t have fair elections. The president accused Democrats of bringing immigrants into the United States to vote illegally, a frequent attack among Trump and his supporters that is not supported by evidence. Only U.S. citizens can vote in federal and state elections.
“If they can’t do it in good faith and do it properly and in a timely manner, then something else has to happen,” Trump later said at Fenn. 4 NBC News interview.
Democrats have expressed alarm at President Trump’s suggestion that the federal government take control of elections held by states under the Constitution.
But Levitt said Trump’s comments were nothing more than urging lawmakers to pass the Republican-backed Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), which would require all Americans to show citizenship and identification to vote in federal elections.
“These are very common-sense policies and proposals,” Levitt said. “That’s what the president is talking about.”
Contributor: USA TODAY’s Phillip Bailey
X Contact Joey Garrison at @joeygarrison.
