CBS’s Major Garrett Predicts 2026 MAGA Battle Between Trump And Red States Over AI

CBS News’s Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett joined his colleagues in offering predictions for 2026 over the weekend and warned of a brewing battle within MAGA over the regulation and spread of artificial intelligence in the U.S. – noting that President Donald Trump has fully embraced AI while several major red states are starting to try and restrict it.

Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan asked her panel of veteran CBS News reporters for their “predictions for 2026.”

Brennan began with CBS national correspondent Robert Costa, who offered his take on the rising leaders in the Democratic Party.

“My motto as a reporter is assume nothing, and we’re very early in the 2028 presidential cycle and discussion. Governor Gavin Newsom of California, Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Governor Pritzker of Illinois—the list goes on,” Costa said, adding:

But my prediction is in 2026, we’re going to see some names we’re not discussing at all start to emerge as possible contenders for the Democrats in 2028. Some celebrities might come into the mix, and one name I would venture, based on some recent reporting: Stephen A. Smith. The sports personality is talking to people in the Democratic Party about whether he has a future. Whether he runs or not, TBD, but something to watch—celebrity politics in the age of Trump on both sides.

Legal correspondent Jan Crawford added, “I’m gonna revisit a prediction I made last year when I kind of confidently said that Justice Alito was probably going to retire and give President Trump his fourth nomination to the Supreme Court. Sources close to Justice Alito say he has not made up his mind. He, in many ways, is too young to retire. He’s 75 years old. But then there’s the concern that he’s too old not to, because if he cares about his legacy—and he is that intellectual leader of the conservative wing—if he cares about his legacy, with a Republican in the White House, a Republican-controlled Senate, this year would be the best time for him to retire.”

Justice Correspondent Scott MacFarlane said, “I think Americans will begin, or increasingly feel, the effects of DOGE. There’s an awful lot of people lost their jobs in the last 12 months—a lot of longtime career civil servants who were good at delivering products for the American citizens. In my world, the Department of Justice, they have over 5,000 people. That can’t help but slow down prosecutions, investigations, and doing right by American people. And that’s true across the board in Washington.”

Garrett spoke last and said, “So I want to be the glue for this process because we have predictions and underreported—mine merged together. So prediction is data centers and AI expansion will be an underappreciated but potent political issue in 2026.”

“Eight executive orders signed by President Trump related to artificial intelligence, just behind tariffs and immigration. He has made himself the AI president. Yet let me give you some names of states: Indiana, Arizona, Missouri, Texas—all, in one way or another, on the Republican side, are up in arms about either AI regulation, lack thereof, or data centers and their implications,” he noted, concluding:

60%—in our most recent poll, nearly 60% of Americans—believe artificial intelligence will not increase jobs but take jobs away. And 44% in most recent polls want more regulation of AI than less. This is a wedge issue that Democrats have identified because it is not cohered on the MAGA side. The president has already put out his chips on AI.

Watch the clip above via CBS.