Trump Threatens To Send ICE Agents To Airports If DHS Not Funded

Here's Trump's latest threat if he doesn't get his way on funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
By Heather — March 21, 2026

Here's Trump's latest threat if he doesn't get his way on funding for the Department of Homeland Security:

With no end in sight to a partial government shutdown that has left most of the Department of Homeland Security without funds to operate, President Donald Trump is threatening to replace the Transportation Security Administration officers who’ve worked without pay since February 14 with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Writing on Truth Social from his West Palm Beach, Florida golf course, Trump demanded that Democrats “immediately” reach an agreement to fund DHS and “let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again.”

He warned that a failure to fund the department would force him to “move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before.”

2026-03-21_11-45-38

As the article at the Independent noted, ICE agents do not have any training in the airport security tasks overseen by TSA.

That didn't stop Fox stenographer Kayleigh McEnany reading off Trump's threat this Saturday on the air as though it was perfectly normal, and not insane in the clip above.

There are 50,000 TSA agents and 22,000 ICE.

It would fall apart faster than the average Trump business

— SurvileSupplicant 🔞 (@survilesupplicant.bsky.social) March 21, 2026 at 11:26 AM

So Trump/Republicans have the $$ to pay ICE agents to work as untrained TSA agents, but doesn't have the $$ to pay for real TSA agents?

— BlueBird (@sun2stars.bsky.social) March 21, 2026 at 11:26 AM

Don’t forget that ICE agents were paid during the last shutdown without congressional approval. If Trump actually cared about TSA agents getting paid, he would move the money around

— Kayla B (@queenofthesouth.bsky.social) March 21, 2026 at 11:08 AM

Another stupid stunt that will backfire if he's stupid enough to actually follow through on it.

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