Trump ICE Threats Take Darker Turn as MAGA Erupts in Demands for Blood

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump is making it explicit. In an angry diatribe to a right-wing podcaster, Trump told his usual lies about vote-cheating by undocumented immigrants, but this time he explicitly called on Republicans to “take over the voting.” He also darkly promised something new out of Georgia, where his FBI is investigating an election center. He singled out supposed fraud in Minnesota, lying that he won it three times. And he said he’s not backing down in the state. Taken all together, the threat is clear: Trump may try to use federal forces to interfere in the midterms, in part by using ICE to intimidate voters and foment crisis. Notably, this comes as MAGA media figures are loudly calling on Trump to escalate the ICE crackdowns, as Media Matters documents. We talked to reporter Gillian Brockell, who regularly scrutinizes ICE and has a new piece detailing how ICE is getting more cruel. We discuss what Trump can do to interfere in the elections, how far his threats can really get, and how MAGA conceives of ICE as an instrument of authoritarian state terror. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.4	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:32.1	It's now becoming clear that in the Trump-Maga worldview, ICE is supposed to function as far more than an immigration enforcement agency. It's seen as an instrument of authoritarian state terror. We think this was
0:40.9	neatly captured by a long monologue that Donald Trump unleashed about supposed vote cheating by undocumented
0:46.8	immigrants, which he accompanied with a very dark threat. This moment comes, not coincidentally,
0:53.6	as MAGA figures are ramping up their demands for a more vicious ice crackdown.
0:59.7	We're working through what all this means today with reporter Gillian Brackell, who reports regularly on ice and has a new piece arguing that the agency is getting more cruel and carrying out its basic duties.
1:12.1	Gillian, nice to have you on.
1:13.7	Thank you for having me.
1:15.4	So let's start with something that Donald Trump said to a right-wing podcast or about undocumented immigrants.
1:21.0	Listen to this.
1:22.2	These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally.
1:26.9	And the, you know, amazing that the Republicans aren't tougher on it.
1:30.3	The Republicans should say, we want to take over.
1:33.1	We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places.
1:39.5	The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.
1:42.2	We have states that are so crooked, and they're counting votes. We have states that are so crooked and the county votes. We have
1:47.0	states that I won that Joe, I didn't win. Now, you're going to see something in Georgia where they
1:52.0	were able to get with the court order and the ballots. You're going to see some interesting things
1:56.2	come out. So there Trump falsely claims undocumented immigrants for voting illegally, then calls on the GOP
2:03.3	Congress to somehow take over the voting in numerous jurisdictions, and he says something's going to be
2:09.3	happening in Georgia. Gileon, just putting aside whether Trump can actually succeed in any of this,
	...

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