I THINK THE FLEEING DEMOCRATS WOULD HAVE TO BE FORMALLY CHARGED WITH A CRIME IN TEXAS AND THEN UNDERGO AN EXTRADITION PROCESS BEFORE THE FBI CAN RETURN THEM TO TEXAS

Trump says he may deploy FBI to locate 'missing' Texas Democrats who dramatically fled the state on a private jet

 

By Nikki Schwab 

 

Daily Mail

Aug 5, 2025

 

 

President Donald Trump said the FBI 'may have to' track down Texas Democrats and bring them back to the state as they're skipping a special legislative session Republicans are using to redistrict the state in the GOP's favor  

 

President Donald Trump kept the option open to use FBI agents to track down the 'missing' Texas Democrats.

'Well they may have to, they may have to,' Trump told reporters Tuesday. 

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter earlier Tuesday to FBI Director Kash Patel asking for federal assistance in bringing back state Democratic lawmakers.

The group of Democrats fled the Lone Star State Sunday in order to prevent their Republican colleagues from approving a new redistricting plan that favors the GOP. 

The newly redrawn map could help Trump and Republicans keep the U.S. House of Representatives in GOP hands in the 2026 midterms, which historically haven't gone the party in power's way.

'Well, I think they've abandoned the state,' Trump commented. 'Nobody's seen anything like it, even though they've done it twice before. And in a certain way, it almost looks like they've abandoned the state looks, very bad.' 

Each Democratic lawmaker is being fined $500 a day for skipping the special legislative session, which was called by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. 

Abbott also ordered an investigation into whether the Democrats are violating bribery laws by using donations to cover the fines. 

Trump noted to reporters that Abbott also wanted the Democrats to come back. 

'I mean the governor of Texas is demanding they come back, a lot of people are demanding they come back,' the president said at an executive order signing related to the 2028 summer Olympics in Los Angeles. 

'You can't just sit it out, you have to go back, you have to fight it out,' the president continued. 'That's what elections are all about.' 

He pushed back on the assertion that Texas Republicans were not playing fair - changing the makeup of Congressional districts in the middle of a decade. 

'They would have done it anyway,' the president said of Democrats. 

Redistricting is usually tied to the U.S. Census, which is conducted every 10 years. 

'I watched this morning as Democrats are complaining and they're complaining from states where they've done it, like in Illinois, like in Massachusetts,' Trump said. 

Trump then segued to one of his favorite Democratic punching bags, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Sanders, a prominent progressive. 

 

Texas Democrats headed to blue states including Illinois. A number of Congressional Texas Democrats and the state-level Democrats who are 'missing' held a press conference on Monday 

 

'I watched this lunatic, Pocahontas, she's a total lunatic,' Trump said. 

Trump assigned Warren the controversial nickname after she was involved in a scandal about whether she should have identified as Native American.   

'I don't know what she's on,' he continued. 'She's all jumping up and down like I've never seen anything like it, talking about supporting the communist mayor.'

The president then briefly went into his hometown's mayoral race, lampooning Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who Trump calls a 'communist.' 

Trump then explained that Warren was also talking about the redistricting. 

'But if you look at what's going on with the redistricting, or whatever you want to call it, the Democrats have done it long before we started,' Trump said. 'They've done it all over the place. They did it in New York, they did it in a lot of different states.'