From calls on his Republican Party to “nationalise” voting to renewed false claims of a stolen election, United States President Donald Trump has intensified attacks on the country’s electoral system ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Trump, who continues to reject the legitimacy of his 2020 election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden, has now proposed stripping some states of their authority to conduct elections and transferring that responsibility to the federal government.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” Trump said during an interview this week with podcaster and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino.
The remarks, which drew swift condemnation from Democrats, come as Republicans face the prospect of losing control of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections. Opinion polls show declining approval ratings for Trump in his second term, while Republicans have suffered a series of setbacks in recent local elections.
Despite this, Trump has doubled down on long-debunked claims of widespread voter fraud, insisting that sweeping action is needed to address what he describes as a broken system.
“I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do them anyway,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday when questioned about his comments.
He reiterated the position in an interview with NBC News aired on Wednesday, alleging that “there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt.”
Trump added that if elections “can’t be done properly and timely, then something else has to happen.”
The president’s statements have heightened concerns among critics that he is challenging the US Constitution, which clearly assigns the administration of elections to individual states.
“The Constitution clearly says that states are the ones that do the running of elections,” Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School, told AFP. “There is no debate about this.”
Levitt, who previously served in the administrations of former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, said the system reflects both the size of the United States and the principle of separation of powers, while also serving as an anti-corruption safeguard.
Trump, who has openly warned that he could face a third impeachment if Republicans lose control of Congress, has remained defiant in his push to reshape how elections are conducted.
The 79-year-old president continues to insist that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, despite multiple court rulings upholding its legitimacy.
“It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that,” Trump told world leaders at the Davos forum in January. “People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Since returning to office last year, Trump has expanded presidential authority to unprecedented levels and is now using federal power to pursue investigations linked to his election loss.
On January 28, the FBI seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and election materials in Georgia as part of a controversial probe into the 2020 vote in the state. The operation was conducted under the supervision of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, an unusual move given that her role is typically focused on foreign threats.
The Justice Department has also filed lawsuits in around 20 states seeking access to voting records, while the administration has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that undocumented migrants are voting illegally on a large scale.
Legal experts say such actions could undermine confidence in the democratic process.
“These moves are part of a broader strategy to cast doubt on the validity of the upcoming elections,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “At worst, it suggests he may try to use the federal government to interfere in how states run elections.”
Civil rights groups have also raised alarm. The NAACP accused the Trump administration of attempting to wear down public resistance through what it called “deplorable and unconstitutional antics.”
In a more extreme scenario, some critics fear the president could attempt to use law enforcement or even the military to influence the vote. Such concerns were amplified by comments from Trump ally and former adviser Steve Bannon.
“We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon said on Tuesday. “And you can whine and cry all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”
