Trump Admin Sued Over Plan to Send Armed ICE Agents to the Polls

The city of Denver—along with multiple Latino civil rights groups—on Thursday sued Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the Trump administration to stop them from allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to serve immigration warrants at polling sites.

While Mullin has denied that ICE would be monitoring voting booths this election, he was concrete about agents having the right to be there if there was a “threat to that polling place” or “we’re serving a warrant.” Denver argues that even that violates 18 U.S. Code § 592, a Civil War-era law which blocks armed forces from patrolling polling locations.

“The right to vote, and to do so without fear of intimidation, is fundamental to our democracy and to being an American,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in a press release. “Stationing ICE agents near polling places is only meant to scare people and suppress votes. We’ll fight tooth and nail to prevent it.”

Federal agents have already been reported at polling places in New York, California, and Texas, as Trump continues his attempt to use baseless claims of widespread voter fraud as a means of fully controlling—or postponing—the midterm elections.

“The presence of federal force at the polls interferes with the smooth administration of elections at the local level,” the lawsuit reads. “It disrupts voting and makes it more difficult for state and local election officials and law enforcement to do their jobs by making polling places spaces of confrontation.”

Other parties in the lawsuit noted that the presence of federal agents would have a chilling effect on Latino voters, potentially stopping many from showing up at all.

“Sending armed ICE officers to polling places is not immigration enforcement — it is voter suppression, plain and simple,” UnidosUS President & CEO Janet Murguía said. “All Americans—including Latino voters—have a constitutional right to cast their ballot without fear of interrogation, detention, or family separation. This case is about protecting voters, preserving confidence in our elections, and ensuring that every eligible voter can participate free from intimidation.”

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins relented on the state’s congressional maps Thursday, ending weeks of election season chaos sparked by a scheme to eke out another Republican seat in the House.

“Following the United States Supreme Court’s stay, the only governing court order in effect is from the Missouri Supreme Court. In accordance with that order, my Office is directing local election authorities to use the 2022 congressional map,” Hoskins said in a statement.

The order came hours after a contentious hearing before the Missouri Supreme Court that weighed whether Hoskins should be held in contempt of court. By Thursday afternoon, the court found that Hoskins “was in CONTEMPT” of their decision, but he would avoid punishment because his decision to use the 2022 map had purged the civil contempt.

Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state needed to use its original maps drawn up in 2022, and could not use maps that were created in 2025 at Donald Trump’s behest (also known as the H1 B map)—even though state officials had used the new map during the August primary. The court held that the 2022 map was the only legally viable legislative map, since the 2025 map was still pending due to a referendum petition filed in December.

Yet Hoskins did not comply with the court order. Instead, he sought emergency relief from the U.S. Supreme Court, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh chose to reject the request on Tuesday.

Then matters got even more complicated. That same day, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark—a Trump appointee—issued a temporary restraining order in a separate federal case, directing Missouri to use the 2025 maps while prohibiting state officials from using the 2022 map.

The U.S. Supreme Court chimed in on the matter for a second time on Thursday, overriding Clark’s decision by ordering the state to rely on Missouri’s prior ruling.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued her own statement Thursday afternoon in support of Hoskins’s decision to walk back the 2025 map effort ahead of the midterms.

“We affirm the Secretary of State of Denny Hoskins’s position and decision to advise local election authorities that the 2022 map is in effect,” Hanaway said. “We respect and will continue to comply with all court decisions, including orders issued by the Supreme Court of Missouri. We appreciate Secretary Hoskins’s continued commitment to upholding the law and working diligently to fulfill his duties on behalf of Missouri.”

Republicans are reportedly leaning toward Vice President JD Vance as their pick for 2028.

While attending a closed-door breakfast at the Republican midterm convention Thursday, Vance was met with cheers of “forty-eight” from the crowd of delegates from key battleground states, four people who were in the room told Politico. 

Ahead of Vance’s scheduled address Thursday night, the breakfast served as reassurance that the vice president is favored by party members to eventually replace Donald Trump. Vance is currently leading the most recent Republican presidential primary polls, ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Even Trump seems to have settled on Vance as his successor—though he still jokes about running for a third term.  

Things weren’t always so peachy for Vance. Earlier this summer, the vice president was the target of online attacks from within the GOP after his involvement in a now-collapsed ceasefire agreement with Iran. Vance’s allies tried to spin the criticism, claiming that coordinated opposition from “establishment” and “neoconservative” Republicans could actually help him in 2028. 

We’re still a long way from 2028, and Vance may get stuck in yet another fissure forming in the Republican Party: between the MAGA cultists and Charlie Kirk fans.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao reportedly admitted that the Iranian military “blew the hell” out of the U.S. naval base in Bahrain—a shocking claim that contradicts the Trump administration’s narrative of total destruction of Iran’s attack capabilities.

While the damage to the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters at Naval Support Activity Bahrain in a February 28 drone attack has been well documented, Cao’s Thursday comment to a reporter at the conservative outlet The Epoch Times is perhaps the most vivid, sober analysis of the situation from an individual of his ranking.

Cao also told The Epoch Times’ Ryan Morgan that Iran’s attack left American forces unable to “pull in” the USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier that was at sea for months and ravaged by reports of poor conditions and low morale.

“This is a pretty stunning admission by the Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, whose nomination is hung up in Congress, about how Iranian forces ‘blew the hell out of (U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet base in) Bahrain,’” Fox News’s Jennifer Griffin wrote. “Haven’t heard a senior U.S. official admit this on the record until now.”

Others noted the Iranian military capacity does not seem to be as depleted as Trump claims.

“A clear and particularly stark pattern we see in the war with Iran is that the Iranians are inflicting tremendous STRATEGIC damage with their missiles, but that the USG denies this at first and only admits it weeks, if not months, later. This creates a PROLONGED false impression that the war is going much better than it actually is and that strategic setbacks are not taking place at all,” wrote Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute. “The media narrative was that Tehran was utterly failing. In reality, Tehran was showcasing capabilities that the official Western narrative ensured were underestimated.”

When asked about any plans to return to the U.S. base in Bahrain, Cao told the Times, “I have a task force that’s looking at that.” That’s not what you want to hear in an expensive war that’s going very poorly.

President Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for why he’ll never give those $5,000 handouts.

Speaking to Fox News’s Laura Ingraham Thursday, Trump offered a baffling excuse for why he couldn’t distribute the $5,000 dividends he’d promised the night before.

“Why not just give the money now? If you have the money, why not give it now?” Ingraham asked.

“Because they can’t. I’ll tell you what, because the Democrats can’t do it, because with them it’s negative growth,” Trump said. “With us, it’s so positive.”

In reality, Republicans are simply not on board. Even Fox News hosts balked at the hypothetical handouts’ estimated $1.3 trillion total price tag. If Republicans were the least bit interested in moving forward with these checks, then they already control Congress. They could just make it happen.

Trump also claimed Thursday that he’d give $500 rebate checks to about one million people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act in 30 states, claiming they were overcharged by the Biden administration.

It’s increasingly clear that Trump is hoping he can pay Republicans’ way through the midterm elections by dangling cash in front of voters. But the president has promised to deliver cash payments multiple times, including $2,000 stimulus checks of tariff revenue and $5,000 stimulus checks for the bygone “DOGE dividend.”