Trump Calls For Unconstitutional Federal Takeover Of Elections While Admin Goes After 2020 Voting Records
President Trump doubled-down on calls to “nationalize” U.S. elections on Tuesday. Speaking from the White House, he said states “can administer the election, but they have to do it honestly,” after saying “the federal government should get involved” — pointing to debunked claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
A nationalized election runs directly against more than two centuries of constitutional limits on federal power.
On Monday, speaking on his former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s podcast, Trump said Republicans should “take over the voting” in at least 15 places, arguing the party would otherwise “never win another election.” He repeated the claims again during an appearance in the Oval Office Tuesday.
Why? He blames undocumented immigrants.
Fact check: The Constitution’s Elections Clause gives states primary authority over how elections are run. That includes voting procedures, ballot counting, and certification. Congress only has limited power to set the “times, places and manner” of federal elections. Ratified in 1788, the Constitution does not grant the president or political parties authority to administer elections.
The Trump administration is both looking ahead at the 2026 midterms and back at the results of the 2020 election. Last week, FBI agents executed a search warrant at an elections office in Georgia, seizing truckloads of 2020 ballots and voting records — a move that state election officials will challenge in court.
BATTLE FOR BALLOTS
Trump suggested to Bongino that the Georgia raid, which came after a judge’s warrant, would yield “interesting things.” The president has recently said he regrets not using federal power to seize voting machines after his 2020 loss to former President Biden. Election officials and courts have said that such a move would have violated state authority and existing election law.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is leading the Trump administration’s push to find evidence of tampering in the 2020 election, and was present for the FBI search of the Fulton County, Georgia, elections office. She told lawmakers in a letter Monday that Trump personally asked her to be there and that she "facilitated" a phone call between Trump and FBI agents.
Gabbard’s official job: The Director of National Intelligence oversees the CIA and 17 other U.S. intelligence agencies. The FBI does not fall under Gabbard’s purview. In recent months, she has reportedly been sidelined from deliberations as multiple international crises unfolded from Venezuela to Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reports that she was told to attend the FBI search by the president, and has been reviewing data from several swing states, and is searching for foreign government interference.
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner, is calling on Gabbard to testify. “Let’s be clear: It is inappropriate for a sitting president to personally involve himself in a criminal investigation tied to an election he lost,” Warner said Tuesday.
The DOJ too: The Justice Department has also sought broader access to voter data in at least 24 states, CNN reports.
Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota officials demanding full voter registration rolls, part of a broader effort to create a national voter file.
Cybersecurity experts, bipartisan election officials, and multiple independent reviews have found no evidence of widespread fraud or tampering in the 2020 election. Audits also show noncitizen voting is extremely rare — a 2024 audit in Georgia found only 20 noncitizens among 8.2 million registered voters, with just nine having ever voted.
WHAT’S NEXT
The White House has not explained how it would implement Trump’s new proposal to nationalize elections without violating the Constitution. Courts would likely immediately block any such move.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday he opposes federalizing elections but supports changes like requiring voter ID, a proposal currently under consideration in Congress.
Vote ID: Pew Research found 83% of Americans support voter ID laws, including majorities of Democrats and Republicans. But, a 2023 survey by the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement found that more than 20% of voters would struggle to meet the requirement due to a lack of valid identification — most impacting young, Black, Hispanic, and low-income voters. That is the top reason cited by Democrats as to why they oppose voter ID laws.
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Measles Cases Rise, Continuing Year-Long Spread
West Texas outbreak 2025
Measles cases are surging in the U.S. In January, there were hundreds of cases across more than a dozen states. The spike follows a year of steady spread that public health experts warn could threaten the virus’s “eliminated” status in the U.S.
The current measles epicenter is in South Carolina, where nearly 800 people have been infected with the highly contagious virus – outpacing last year’s West Texas outbreak. That Texas outbreak killed three people, including two unvaccinated children — the first U.S. measles deaths in nearly a decade.
No signs of slowing: The largest outbreak is centered in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. The state has 876 reported cases since October 2025. Since Jan. 2, cases have climbed by more than 600. State health officials reported Tuesday 29 new cases since Friday.
800 of those infected are unvaccinated; 16 are partially vaccinated; 22 are fully vaccinated and 38 have an unknown vaccination status. Spartanburg County has a vaccine rate of 90% overall — lower than the 95% threshold needed to prevent measles.
The surge comes amid growing concern from public health experts about the impact of anti-vaccine rhetoric from prominent figures, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has long promoted the scientifically unproven claim that vaccines, including the MMR vaccine, are linked to autism in children. And under his leadership, the CDC website now says that it is not “evidence-based” that vaccines do not cause autism. Pressed on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said he has not seen any studies supporting the theory that any vaccines cause autism.
BEYOND THE OUTBREAK
Last year, the U.S. saw its most measles cases in 34 years, with more than 2,000 cases across 44 states — about 93% among people who were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status, according to the CDC. Public health experts warn the virus may now be endemic — recurring annually — despite being nearly eliminated in 2000 through vaccination.
Canada lost its measles elimination status in November 2025 after more than a year of sustained transmission, with over nearly 5,500 cases since the outbreak began in October 2024. Two deaths have been reported nationwide from the virus. Public health experts warn the U.S. could follow.
