Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) told a University of Chicago audience this week that she wants future prosecutions of people around President Donald Trump to discourage young people from working in his administration, according to video of the event and reporting by Breitbart News.
The remarks came during a live recording of Vox’s “America, Actually” podcast with Vox editorial director Astead Herndon at the university’s Institute of Politics on Tuesday, according to Breitbart News. A clip of the exchange was posted on X on Saturday by The Chicago Thinker, a conservative campus publication, and spread quickly online.
ON UCHICAGO CAMPUS: U.S. Senator from Michigan Elissa Slotkin hopes planned political prosecutions of republican leaders will scare young conservatives from getting involved in politics.@ElissaSlotkin pic.twitter.com/p7NBJpDcQW
— The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) October 17, 2026
“I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him,” Slotkin said in the clip, as quoted by Breitbart News. “I want young people coming out of school to say, should I go work for the Trump administration? Like that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity. I want them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that.”
She finished the thought by saying, “I want that deterrence message,” according to Breitbart News.
The Chicago Thinker’s post described the senator’s goal as scaring young conservatives away from getting involved in politics. In the clip as quoted by Breitbart News, Slotkin refers specifically to people who enabled the president and to graduates weighing jobs in the Trump administration.
The “Iron Broom” roadmap
The Chicago comments build on a speech Slotkin gave Sept. 30 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Michigan Public reported at the time that Slotkin laid out a roadmap for Democrats if they retake Congress after the midterm elections, and that part of that plan is prosecuting members of the Trump administration.
Slotkin compared the idea to what European countries did after authoritarian leaders were ousted, according to Michigan Public. “In Poland, they called this plan the Iron Broom, cleaning the place up,” she said in the speech, as quoted by Michigan Public and Breitbart News.
“The goal here is to have a list of signature cases that go after some of the most obvious and harmful abuses of taxpayer dollars,” Slotkin said, according to both outlets.
In that speech, according to Breitbart News, Slotkin named Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro as figures she argued should be held accountable. Breitbart News reported that she told the audience that misusing taxpayer money “can land you a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.”
What’s new this time
The Carnegie speech focused on alleged misuse of taxpayer money by named officials, according to the coverage from Michigan Public and Breitbart News. The Chicago remarks, as quoted by Breitbart News, go a step further by tying future cases to a goal of steering recent graduates away from jobs in the Trump administration altogether.
That framing is likely to sharpen the midterm debate over what a Democratic majority would do with its investigative power. Slotkin’s own words now put that deterrence goal on the record.
Slotkin’s own brush with the Justice Department
The senator has been the target of a Justice Department investigation herself. Breitbart News reported that Pirro’s office sought to indict Slotkin and five other Democratic lawmakers over a 90-second video urging military members to refuse illegal orders, which Trump called “seditious.” A federal grand jury declined to return an indictment in February, according to Breitbart News.
Sources
- The Chicago Thinker on X (video)
- Breitbart News
- Michigan Public
- WGVU News
Sources cited
- https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/10/17/elissa-slotkin-says-she-wants-to-deter-young-people-from-working-for-trump/
- https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-09-30/slotkin-says-voters-should-be-wary-of-federal-interference-in-midterms
- https://www.wgvunews.org/news/2026-10-01/slotkin-raises-alarm-over-election-interference-ahead-of-midterms
- https://x.com/ThinkerChicago/status/2111560599167795418
Sources
- Original post: The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) on X, Oct 17, 2026
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