Reacting to the Republican Party’s sweeping losses in Texas in the midterm election, longtime Donald Trump Svengali Steve Bannon wants the president to dispatch troops to the border state.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Bannon is predicting disaster in a state that Republicans once counted deeply under their sway.
“This is an emergency. This has to happen now,” Bannon said. He argued Trump must act before newly empowered Democrats unwind the state’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The scale of the shift is significant. Democrats won the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office and control of the state House, while Republicans held onto the state Senate. Democrat James Talarico also captured a U.S. Senate seat.
Bannon told the outlet that a Democratic-led Texas would become "a haven for undocumented immigrants," and that the damage to the country would be permanent. He made a similar case to Axios, saying Trump will have to federalize the border with either Guard troops or federal agents.
Adding to the panic, the Mail is reporting that, "Aaron Reitz, Trump's top federal prosecutor in Houston, said that his attorneys are now 'the last men standing,' and that the risk of Texas cities becoming a 'Minneapolis-style insane asylum' has 'increased significantly.'"
The first test may come in Houston. Mayor John Whitmire ordered police to stop calling ICE over nonviolent offenses, citing Democrats’ election wins. Federal prosecutors in Houston are now reviewing the order, according to the Mail.
Any federal response will run through Stephen Miller, who replaced Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff days after the election, the report notes. The shakeup comes as Trump orders JD Vance to zero in on Democratic-run cities and states, and as Republicans trade blame over what cost them the midterms.
Miller has long argued for broad presidential power. He told CNN in October 2025 that the president “has the authority anytime he believes federal resources are insufficient to federalize the National Guard to carry out a mission necessary for public safety.”
The courts have disagreed before. In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court temporarily barred Trump from deploying the Guard in Chicago.
Control of the Texas National Guard passes to Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa on Jan. 19, the Mail reported.
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