Overview
- In a Monday interview on Dan Bongino’s podcast, President Trump said Republicans should “take over” voting in at least 15 places and “nationalize the voting,” repeating unfounded claims about fraud and noncitizen ballots.
- Legal experts and a former federal judge said a federal takeover of election administration would conflict with the Constitution, which assigns primary responsibility to states and localities.
- Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was referring to the SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, a proposal that would not itself federalize election administration.
- Democrats denounced the call, and several Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Rep. Don Bacon, supported voter‑ID measures but rejected federalizing elections as unconstitutional.
- The remarks followed the FBI’s search of Fulton County, Georgia’s elections office for 2020 records, and news reports said Trump spoke by phone with agents involved in the search as DOJ efforts to obtain state voter rolls continue.