Steve Bannon Says 'Of Course, You Want to Intimidate' Noncitizen Voters at Polls

Steve Bannon said on Tuesday's episode of War Room that the only people who would fear an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent at a polling place are noncitizens trying to vote.

The former Trump White House chief strategist made the remarks a week before the November 3 midterms. Federal officials have said no such operation is planned.

What Steve Bannon Said About ICE and Polling Places

Bannon accused Democrats of trying to "pre-butt" the Justice Department's role in the election. He then described what he said Democrats claim every day: that Trump has "a thousand deployed US attorneys" and plans for "five thousand attorneys" and "up-armored ICE agents, at every polling district in the country, particularly sanctuary cities and sanctuary states." The audio was choppy, and he presented that last line as a description of Democrats' warnings, not as an administration plan.

His own view followed. "You're not intimidating anybody," Bannon said. Of course, you want to intimidate those people."

He said noncitizen voting is how Democrats win: "We understand it's your business model, and this is how you win elections, but hell yes, we should fight back."

The Brazil Warning

Bannon tied the fight to Brazil, where President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat Flávio Bolsonaro in a runoff on Sunday. "You either fight it now beforehand and on game day, or you're going to be in the same situation in Brazil," he said.

After the defeat, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Flávio Bolsonaro to surrender his passports, and police canceled them on Tuesday, Euronews reported. His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted by Brazil's Supreme Federal Court in September 2025 of plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election, and was sentenced to 27 years and three months, CBS News reported. He denies wrongdoing.

Bannon called Sunday's runoff a stolen election but offered no evidence of fraud. He scoffed that authorities say the elder Bolsonaro is jailed for a coup, "not for contesting a stolen election."

Trump, speaking to reporters before departing for Texas on Tuesday, was asked whether he would respect the midterm results. "I will, if they're honest elections, yes," he said.

What the Administration Has Actually Announced

The numbers Bannon cited only partly match the record. Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, told Bloomberg that the department will send about 1,000 federal monitors to polling places, a record. In 2024 the department sent 714 and in 2022 it sent 289, CBS News reported.

On ICE, Heather Honey, the Department of Homeland Security's deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, told state election officials on a Feb. 25 call: "Any suggestion that ICE is going to be present at polling places is simply disinformation. There will be no ICE presence at polling locations."

What Federal Law Says About Armed Agents at the Polls

Under 18 U.S.C. §592, it is a crime for any person "in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States" to bring or keep "troops or armed men" at a polling place unless they are needed to repel armed enemies. The penalty is up to five years in prison.

52 U.S.C. §10101(b) bars anyone, "whether acting under color of law or otherwise," from intimidating or coercing a person to interfere with their right to vote. Noncitizens have no such right in federal elections, and voting as a noncitizen is already a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. §611.

How Rare Noncitizen Voting Is

A Brennan Center study of 42 jurisdictions found about 30 suspected noncitizen votes out of 23.5 million cast in 2016, or 0.0001 percent.

What Happens Next

Election Day is Tuesday. A September lawsuit challenging DHS statements about federal agents near polling places remains in its early stages. Whether any federal agents show up near the polls, and how the department's 1,000 monitors are used, will be clear within a week.