In a TIME Interview, Trump Answers "Haven't Thought of It" on ICE at Polling Places and "I Don't Rule Anything Out or In" on a Pre-Midterm Emergency

President Donald Trump sat down with TIME at the White House on Sept. 28; TIME published a lightly edited transcript on Oct 1, 2026. Asked whether he plans to dispatch ICE agents to polling places in the midterms, he answered: “Haven’t thought of it.” Asked whether he would rule out a state of emergency before the midterms, he answered: “I don’t rule anything out or in.” On the Insurrection Act, which Trump himself raised, he said: “I’ve never used it. I could use it. A lot of people think I should use it sometimes.”

The transcript attaches the emergency answer, not the ICE answer, to the Insurrection Act exchange. Secondary outlets that quote “We’ll see” as the ICE answer have merged those exchanges.

Statement against the record. The statements are documented in TIME’s own transcript. Whether any order followed is a separate question, checked in the research note cascade-research:time-interview-insurrection-act-polling-place-statements-2026-10-08 against the Federal Register’s presidential documents; the interview itself is not an order, and intent is not inferred.