Trump calls in to Dan Bongino's first show and insists Republicans must 'take over voting' in 15 places

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Monday 02 February 2026 16:22 EST


President Donald Trump suggested that his party should seize control of elections in ‘at least 15 places’ and brazenly repeated a number of blatant lies about his electoral history in Minnesota and Georgia during a Monday phone interview with a right-wing podcaster who briefly served in a top FBI role last year.

Trump, who continues to falsely insist that he won the 2020 election despite having lost to successor-turned-predecessor Joe Biden by wide margins in both the popular and electoral vote, spoke to podcaster Dan Bongino to mark the return of his eponymous show after serving less than a year as the FBI’s Deputy Director.

At one point during the madcap interview, Trump began espousing a racist conspiracy theory which posits that Democrats’ opposition to harsh anti-immigration measures is part of a deliberate effort to pack voter rolls with people who are not in the country legally despite the fact that non-citizens are not permitted to vote and almost never attempt to do so.

The president claimed that the Biden administration’s reversal of border policies instituted during his first term was meant to bolster the Democratic Party’s fortunes at the polls and argued that Republicans in Congress should respond by taking control of elections in Democratic-run jurisdictions even though the U.S. Constitution specifically allocates that responsibility to state and local governments rather than the federal government.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-bongino-podcast-republicans-voting-b2912544.html?test_group=lighteradlayout

---

Here we go.

[hlthe2b]

1. "madcap" interview? Really? I am so damned sick of the diminishing of outrageous & dangerous

Trump actions and statements. "Madcap" implies a three Stooges comedy episode, not something so deadly serious.

[Harker]

2. Here come "zany" and "wacky."

"Insane" approaches accuracy.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. "madcap" Seriously? I see nothing amusingly eccentric about a psychopath.

Combine his delusion driven dementia with that and buckle up. Unless he's removed, and soon, I don't see us being on a stable, reality based trajectory. Here we go, indeed.

I hope that you've had a good day, BRDS.

TY ❤️

[kacekwl]

4. Did Bongino

apologize to his master for doing such a shitty job at the FBI ? Biggest tough guy weasel ever. Shocking that the great unwashed are still listening to his BS.

[IcyPeas]

5. Bongino's more useful to trump on his dumbass show than he was in the fbi

[mdbl]

6. The public must be convinced to vote Democratic to keep Dump from stealing their vote.

I don't care what their political affiliations are. At least for the next couple of elections.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. MaddowBlog-Eyeing midterms, Steve Bannon expects ICE agents, troops at local polling sites

A prominent Democratic governor recently said he was concerned about Trump deploying federal personnel to the polls. Bannon just touted that exact idea.

Eyeing midterms, Steve Bannon expects ICE agents, troops at local polling sites

www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Mike Walker (@newnarrative.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T15:44:40.623Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/eyeing-midterms-steve-bannon-expects-ice-agents-troops-at-local-polling-sites

A variety of Republicans expressed discomfort with the declaration, which Trump repeated on Tuesday and Wednesday, pointing to the inconvenient fact that what the president wants is at odds with the U.S. Constitution, which he ostensibly swore to uphold. But one of the president’s allies enthusiastically endorsed the radical gambit. The New Republic noted:

The chief strategist during the president’s first term has a grim vision for the 2026 midterm elections, and it involves armed federal agents.

‘You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November,’ Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast on Tuesday.

“We’re not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again,” Bannon added. “And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”

Steve Bannon: “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.”

— Ari Drennen (@aridrennen.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T19:31:41.011Z

For now, let’s not dwell on the obvious fact that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen. Let’s instead note that the podcast host went on to say that he wouldn’t be satisfied with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surrounding local voting precincts in November: Bannon also wants to see the deployment of active-duty military personnel.

“President Trump has to nationalize the election. You’ve got to put not just, I think, ICE, you’ve got to call up the 82nd and 101st Airborne [Divisions] on the Insurrection Act,” he told his listeners. “You’ve got to get around every poll and make sure only people with IDs, people … actually registered to vote and people that are United States citizens vote in this election.”....

So when a prominent presidential ally uses his conservative media platform to talk about ICE agents and military troops being deployed to local voting precincts, we’re no longer at a place where it’s easy to shrug off such rhetoric as ridiculous.

A few months ago, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker appeared on MS NOW and said he was concerned about the Republican administration deploying federal personnel to polling locations under the pretense of “protecting the vote.” With Bannon endorsing this exact scenario, it’s probably best not to look away too quickly.