Trump vows to change how elections are run. The US Constitution doesn't give him that power.
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
The same post also pushed falsehoods about voting. He claimed the U.S. is the only country to use mail voting, when it's actually used by dozens, including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Advertisement
Similar complaints to Trump's, when aired on conservative and conservative-leaning networks such as Newsmax and Fox News, have led to multimillion dollar defamation settlements, including one announced Monday, because they are full of false information and the outlets have not been able to present any evidence to support them.
Trump's post came after the president told Fox News that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in their Friday meeting in Alaska, echoed his grievances about mail voting and the 2020 election. Trump continued his attack on mail voting and voting machines in the Oval Office on Monday, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Advertisement
The announcement signals yet another way that Trump intends to stack the cards in his favor in the 2026 midterm elections, after he already has directed his attorney general to investigate a Democratic fundraising platform and urged states to redraw their congressional districts to help the GOP maintain its majority in the House of Representatives.
Here's a breakdown of Trump's latest election post and why Congress is the one entity that can implement national election rules.
Trump's post
Trump for years has promoted false information about voting, and Monday was no exception.
He claimed there is 'MASSIVE FRAUD' due to mail voting, when in fact voting fraud in the U.S. is rare. As an example, an Associated Press review after the 2020 election found fewer than 475 cases of potential fraud in the six battleground states where he disputed his loss, far too few to tip that election to Trump.
Washington and Oregon, which conduct elections entirely by mail, have sued to challenge Trump's earlier executive order — which sought to require that all ballots must be received by Election Day and not just postmarked by then. The states argue that the president has no such authority, and they are seeking a declaration from a federal judge in Seattle that their postmark deadlines do not conflict with federal law setting the date of U.S. elections.
Trump also alleged that voting machines are more expensive than 'Watermark Paper.' That's a little-used system that has gained favor and investments among some voting conspiracy theorists who believe it would help prevent fraudulent ballots from being introduced into the vote count. Watermarks would not provide a way to count ballots, so they would not on their own replace vote tabulating machines.
Advertisement
While some jurisdictions still have voters use electronic ballot-marking devices to cast their votes, the vast majority of voters in the U.S. already vote on paper ballots, creating an auditable record of votes that provides an extra safeguard for election security.
In his post, Trump also claimed that states 'are merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes' and must do what the federal government 'as represented by the President of the United States' tells them to do.
Election lawyers said that's a misrepresentation of the U.S. Constitution. It also flies in the face of what had been a core Republican Party value of prioritizing states' rights.
Thousands of elections, none under presidential control
Unlike in most countries, elections in the U.S. are run by the states. But it gets more complicated — each state then allows smaller jurisdictions, such as counties, cities or townships, to run their own elections. Election officials estimate there are as many as 10,000 different election jurisdictions across the country.
A frequent complaint of Trump and other election conspiracy theorists is that the U.S. doesn't run its election like France, which hand counts presidential ballots and usually has a national result on election night. But that's because France is only running that single election, and every jurisdiction has the same ballot with no other races.
A ballot in the U.S. might contain dozens of races, from president on down to city council and including state and local ballot measures.
Advertisement
The Constitution makes the states the entities that determine the 'time, place and manner' of elections, but does allow Congress to 'make' or 'alter' rules for federal elections.
Congress can change the way states run congressional and presidential elections but has no say in the way a state runs its own elections. The president is not mentioned at all in the Constitution's list of entities with powers over elections.
'The president has very limited to zero authority over things related to the conduct of elections,' said Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Courts have agreed — no presidential involvement
Parts of Trump's earlier executive order on elections were swiftly blocked by the courts, on the grounds that Congress, and not the president, sets federal election rules.
It's unclear what Trump plans to do now, but the only path to change federal election rules is through Congress.
Although Republicans control Congress, it's unclear that even his party would want to eliminate voting machines nationwide, possibly delaying vote tallies in their own races by weeks or months. Even if they did, legislation would likely be unable to pass because Democrats could filibuster it in the U.S. Senate.
Mail voting had bipartisan support before Trump turned against it during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election, but it's still widely used in Republican-leaning states, including several he won last November — Arizona, Florida and Utah. It's also how members of the military stationed overseas cast their ballots, and fully eliminating it would disenfranchise those GOP-leaning voters.
The main significance of Trump's Monday statement is that it signals his continuing obsession with trying to change how elections are run.
Advertisement
'These kinds of claims could provide a kind of excuse for him to try to meddle,' Hasen said. 'Very concerned about that.'
Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
17 minutes ago
- CNBC
Many unknowns about the nature of 'security guarantees': Chatham House
Jaroslava Barbieri, research fellow at Chatham House, says the overall mood from the Trump-Ukraine talks on Monday was one of "cautious optimism," but there were many unknowns about promised "security guarantees."
NBC News
17 minutes ago
- NBC News
Trump administration revoked more than 6,000 student visas, State Department says
WASHINGTON — The administration of President Donald Trump has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and breaking the law, including a small minority for 'support for terrorism,' a State Department official said Monday. The move, first reported by Fox Digital, comes as the Trump administration has adopted a particularly hard-line approach toward student visas as part of its immigration crackdown, tightening social media vetting and expanding screening. Directives from the State Department this year have ordered U.S. diplomats abroad to be vigilant against any applicants whom Washington may see as hostile to the United States and with a history of political activism. Around 4,000 visas were canceled because the visitors broke the law, with the vast majority being assault, the official said. Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and burglary were other offenses, the official added. About 200 to 300 visas were revoked for terrorism, the official said, citing a rule about visa ineligibility under the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual. The rule identifies ineligibility grounds generally as 'engaging in terrorist activities' and 'having certain links to terrorist organizations.' The official did not say which groups the students whose visas have been revoked were in support of. Trump has clashed with several top-level U.S. universities, accusing them of becoming bastions of antisemitism following large-scale student protests advocating Palestinian rights amid the Gaza war. In his clash with Harvard, Trump has frozen funding for investigations and threatened to remove the university's tax-exempt status, prompting several European nations to increase research grants to attract talent. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he has revoked the visas of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, including students, because they got involved in activities that he said went against U.S. foreign policy priorities. Trump administration officials have said that student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy and accusing them of being pro-Hamas. A Tufts University student from Turkey was held for over six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school's response to Israel's war in Gaza. She was released from custody after a federal judge granted her bail.
CNBC
17 minutes ago
- CNBC
Trump promised Ukraine 'security guarantees': Here's what they could look like
On the face of it, talks on Monday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders went well. The U.S. and Ukrainian leaders were pictured looking jovial and smiling together — a far cry from the extraordinary shouting match and public humiliation inflicted on Zelenskyy during his last trip to the White House in February. Monday's talks, which involved a raft of European leaders, appeared to make progress toward ending the protracted war between Russia and Ukraine, with Trump saying a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy would be arranged, followed by a trilateral meeting that he would join. The most significant development result for Kyiv and Europe, however, was Trump's statement that security guarantees for Ukraine would be "provided" by European countries in "coordination with the U.S." Describing that as a "major step forward," Zelenskyy said later that the package of security guarantees for Ukraine — highly coveted by Kyiv's leadership and seen as a deterrent to future Russian aggression — will include a massive purchase of American weapons, with financing reportedly supported by Europe. The agreement would be "formalized on paper within the next week to 10 days," he said. As for what the security guarantees could include, the detail is still scant. Trump commented at a post-talks press conference that Europe would "take a lot of the burden" for these, but said the U.S. would help and would make it "very secure." In any case, security guarantees likely mean that Europe, and the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" of countries offering to oversee a peace deal, is on the hook to fulfill what they've previously promised. French President Emmanuel Macron hinted Tuesday that the "first security guarantee we are working on — and it is the most important — is a strong Ukrainian army, composed of several hundred thousand men, well equipped, with defense systems and higher standards." "The second is to have reassurance forces, the British, the French, the Germans, the Turks, and others ready to carry out these operations — not on the front line, not in a provocative way, but reassurance operations in the air, at sea, and on land. The goal is to send a strategic signal: peace in Ukraine is also our concern," he told French broadcaster TF1-LCI, in comments translated by NBC News. Jaroslava Barbieri, research fellow at Chatham House, told CNBC Tuesday that the overall mood from the talks on Monday was one of "cautious optimism," but there are many unknowns. "However, we have to say that the Kremlin's maximalist demands on Ukraine have not changed and so there's still a number of uncertainties about the security guarantees, the details, who is going to be doing what, if there are any troop deployments then where will they be stationed and for how long, which countries will be contributing?" she asked. European leaders have voiced misgivings over the lack of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine before a peace deal is negotiated, but they seem willing to acquiesce, for now, with the end goal of peace and Ukraine and Europe's security in mind. Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania's former foreign minister, told CNBC Tuesday that Europe still appeared to be struggling to be heard, saying the bloc had not yet found its strength and "ability to create leverage." "What came out of the meeting yesterday was that Europe was asking the U.S. yesterday to continue its assistance, to ask for a ceasefire, to assist any stationing of troops, and then some of the leaders were even saying, 'Well, some of the Ukrainian territories might be lost, but that's a reality.' Well, that doesn't sound like Europe finding it's strength," he said. "It's more like Europe agreeing that, 'we are in a very weak position and we have to please President Trump as much as we can and we have nothing to put on the table'," he noted. What's more, it's unclear whether the Kremlin will even agree to direct talks with Zelenskyy. Putin's presidential aide Yuri Ushakov stated Monday that Trump and Putin had discussed "that it would be necessary to study the possibility of raising the level of representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian sides," but that no firm decision was made. The proposed future summits between Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy would keep a process towards a possible resolution of the conflict alive, but it would still follow the Russian script of a no-ceasefire scenario, Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, cautioned. "Putin may already set difficult conditions for a meeting with Zelenskyy. And in a meeting with Zelenskyy, Putin's major goal may be to pin the blame for any failure on Zelenskyy instead of agreeing to a truce or a final deal. The outcome remains very uncertain," he noted.
