(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday wrote in a post to his social media platform that he will lead a “movement” to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines, falsely claiming that they lead to voter fraud.
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election,” Trump wrote in his social media post.
Trump said he will begin his efforts by signing an executive order ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Any such order would likely face legal challenges.
“Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do,” Trump wrote.
The Constitution gives power state legislatures to determine the “times, places and manner” of holding elections, subject to acts of Congress that regulate the process.
Trump has long sown doubts about mail-in voting, often over the objections of many Republicans. He’s claimed mail-in voting contributed to his 2020 election loss, though no widespread fraud has been found.
The president’s post comes after Trump told Fox News that he spoke about mail-in voting in the United States with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. When the two met in Anchorage, Alaska, last week, Putin claimed Russia’s war on Ukraine wouldn’t have happened if Trump had been president.
“Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview after Friday’s summit.
Trump added that Putin “said there’s not a country in the world that uses it now” — though Russia itself also has mail-in voting.
Russia’s 2024 presidential election outcome, which showed a landslide win for Putin, was decried by many Western nations as not free or fair. The U.S. State Department said it had “occurred in an environment of intense political repression that has marginalized or completely silenced all independent voices.”
Trump’s former top adviser, Fiona Hill, who was present when Trump suggested in 2018 that he believed Putin’s denial that Russia interfered in the 2016 election over the findings of U.S. intelligence, weighed in on the issue during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“Well, look, this is Vladimir Putin, as usual, trying to manipulate U.S. domestic politics,” Hill said. She added that Putin “wants to sow chaos in the American electoral system ahead of the midterms.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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