For any Republican who pays attention to cultural discourse, it’s not exactly a shocker to hear that President Donald Trump’s GOP could be in hot (blue) water come the 2026 midterms.
Even setting aside the inherent disadvantages that Republicans face (like the “midterm penalty,” the phenomenon where the party that wins the presidency almost always loses congressional seats in the midterms), the GOP is also facing deeply divisive issues like the Jeffrey Epstein files and the fact that some Americans haven’t felt the economic salve that’s been promised to them.
And there’s also the matter of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE has come under intense scrutiny of late, particularly following tragic incidents that saw Renee Good and Alex Pretti die.
The prevailing theory is that Trump’s hardline immigration stances may actually come back to bite his party in the midterms.
But interestingly enough, according to multiple polls, Trump’s immigration philosophy may actually be his, no pun intended, trump card.
Take this Cygnal polling, for example. The poll, conducted among likely midterm voters with a 3.09 percent margin of error, found that despite the mass hysteria over ICE, those voters generally seem in favor of Trump’s immigration policies.
When it came to the question of “Do you support or oppose deporting those illegally in the United States back to their country of origin?” the majority of polled midterm voters were in favor at 61 percent.
(Swing voters were even more supportive, at 64 percent, while Democrats opposed at a 67 percent rate.)
“Do you support or oppose Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcing federal immigration laws to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S.?” yielded slightly more polarized findings. Among midterm voters, 54 percent supported ICE enforcing federal immigration laws, with swing voters at 59 percent support, and Democrat voters at 81 percent opposition.
Other key findings: 73 percent of voters think those that illegal aliens entering the U.S. are breaking the law, and 64 percent of voters think illegal immigration is a problem for the country.