Election security advice from Putin

Politico

21 hours ago

With help from Felicia Schwartz, Daniel Lippman and Nicole Markus
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And with that, to the news at hand.
As President DONALD TRUMP pledges to roll back mail-in voting, election officials are concerned that steps to limit America's voting systems will only make it easier for foreign hackers such as Russia to interfere in future elections.
On Monday, Trump announced in a post on Truth Social his intention to sign an executive order 'to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots,' along with ending the use of 'Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,' though he did not elaborate on what types of machines he was referring to.
Should Trump ban both mail-in ballots and voting machines, ballots would either need to be tediously and meticulously hand counted or the U.S. would need to create a system for voting online — which security experts warn could threaten the privacy and safety of America's elections — providing an opening for Russia.
'There is no feasible way to hand count U.S. general elections,' HARRI HURSTI, co-founder of the Voting Village at the annual DEF CON conference — where hackers can hunt for vulnerabilities in voting machines — told your host. 'Humans are slow and error-prone and also sometimes dishonest. … You would need to take a significant part of the whole labor force and dedicate those to election work for weeks.'
Rep. JOE MORELLE (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Administration Committee with jurisdiction over federal election issues, noted that hand counting ballots 'is an open invitation to being able to mess with the results.'
Russia has sought to influence elections around the world to peddle propaganda and to undermine global Western alliances such as NATO. The U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, and Moscow has been accused in recent years of attempting to influence elections throughout Europe, including Romania, Moldova and Georgia. In 2018, DHS' top cyber official cautioned that U.S. election infrastructure is regularly targeted by hackers to 'cause disruptive effects, steal sensitive data and undermine confidence in the election.'
Trump's latest attacks on U.S. election infrastructure come after he met with Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN in Alaska on Friday. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity following the meeting, Trump praised the Russian leader and suggested that he supported his debunked claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
'He said: 'Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,'' he told Hannity.
Trump has long claimed that mail-in voting leads to increased voter fraud, though there has been little evidence to support this. Around one-third of the electorate submitted their ballots by mail in the 2024 elections.
It's worth noting that state governments are in charge of holding elections, according to Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, and any executive order or law seeking to overturn states' rights on this issue is certain to be challenged in court.
Still, the Trump administration has already taken steps in recent months to weaken U.S. election security in other ways. The administration froze efforts at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to help secure votes and challenge election-related misinformation. In addition, the team at the FBI that responds to foreign election interference was disbanded in February.
The White House insisted that Trump's effort to end the use of mail-in ballots is meant to enhance election security.
'President Trump wants to secure America's elections and protect the vote, restoring the integrity of our elections by requiring voter ID, ensuring no illegal ballots are cast, and preventing cheating through lax and incompetent voting laws in states like California and New York,' HARRISON FIELDS, White House principal deputy press secretary, said in a statement.
But the timing of Trump's announcement — right after a high-stakes meeting with Putin — has heightened concerns that Trump's actions, nudged by Putin, are aimed at suppressing certain voters and downgrading election security by eroding trust in the electoral process.
Colorado Secretary of State JENA GRISWOLD (D), the chief election official in her state, said through these actions, Trump had 'already made our elections less secure.'
'Russia attacked our elections in 2016 unsuccessfully. Russia is not a friend of the United States, and if the U.S. president does not realize it, this just shows how deranged Donald Trump's leadership style is,' Griswold said.
The Inbox
FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — RWANDAN ARRIVALS: Rwanda tells our own Felicia Schwartz that the first seven migrant deportees arrived in the country Saturday, after she reported earlier this month that Kigali was the latest to bow to diplomatic pressure from the Trump administration to accept some of the thousands of migrants targeted under its mass deportation agenda.
The seven individuals are being visited by officials from the International Organization for Migration, and Kigali is providing social services, said YOLANDE MAKOLO, spokesperson for the Rwandan government. Three of the migrants have said they will return to their home countries, while four have indicated they want to stay in Rwanda. He declined to provide more details, citing the deportees' privacy.
TRUMP'S MIXED SIGNALS: Trump's keeping everyone guessing about what he meant by U.S. support for security guarantees for Ukraine.
On 'Fox & Friends' this morning, Trump said, 'You have my assurance, and I'm president,' that there won't be American boots on the ground to defend against another Russian incursion. But he didn't specify whether he'd offer air assets or other kinds of military support as a backstop to any European effort to protect Ukraine.
Europe has similarly been less committal about what it can provide to Ukraine. The Germans have said they can't commit troops on the ground. France and the U.K. are expected to lead some kind of response from the coalition of willing allies, but Paris is leaving the final contours vague as allies continue discussing security guarantees.
Trump added that Putin also may not want a deal with Ukraine, and Moscow may have vindicated his point. As all sides haggle over the location of a potential trilateral meeting, Putin pitched Trump on a meeting with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY in Moscow; that would likely be a no-go for Kyiv.
Read: Nahal Toosi, POLITICO: The Existential Meets the Absurd in Latest Ukraine Talks
ISRAEL'S PROPOSAL REVIEW: Israel is reviewing a ceasefire proposal mediated by Arab allies that would see a phased hostage release. Hamas agreed to the plan earlier this week, offering a potential glimmer of hope that the war would soon come to an end after nearly two years of fighting.
Felicia writes in to suggest you view these developments cautiously, if not skeptically. She says the talks have reached this stage many times, only to fall apart again — often when one party has been ready to accept the deal, the other felt they were better off still fighting.
Trump also appears to have lost interest in the negotiation effort; he pulled the U.S. out of the current round of talks last month and said during meetings with European leaders that Ukraine was the only conflict he had worked on but not solved, leaving out Gaza. The president has recently suggested that the remaining hostages in Israel will only be returned 'when Hamas is confronted and destroyed.'
SHEINBAUM DENIES DEA DEAL: The Drug Enforcement Agency announced a major bilateral initiative to dismantle Mexican drug trafficking networks, but Mexico's government is claiming it doesn't know anything about it.
'The DEA issued this statement; we do not know on what basis. We have not reached any agreement through any of the security agencies with the DEA,' Mexican President CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM told a morning press conference.
Sheinbaum, however, did note that Washington and Mexico City have negotiated for months on a security coordination agreement, which she described as 'practically ready.' That deal would provide a framework for coordination initiatives.
The program DEA announced, dubbed Project Portero, would create joint training programs for U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials to collaborate. DEA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
SOME NEWS ON THE HOME FRONT: We have a new anchor of NatSec Daily!
DANIELLA CHESLOW, who has served as POLITICO's deputy tech editor and contributed to your favorite natsec newsletter, is taking the helm at NatSec Daily — starting tomorrow.
A former foreign correspondent, Daniella has already brought her interest in national security issues to reporting tech stories. Take a look at her pieces detailing how Israel's high-tech defenses failed to stop the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, the potential for conflict in Iran to threaten tech companies' expansion plans in the Gulf and how NATO countries' commitments to spend more on defense are sparking an 'AI gold rush.'
Send tips and well wishes to Daniella at [e-mail].
ERIC BAZAIL-EIMIL, your friendly NatSec Daily co-writer, is also embarking on a new role covering the Department of Homeland Security, as it becomes increasingly central to the Trump administration's foreign policy priorities, including deportations, drug control and border policing.
Fear not, though, Eric will still be popping in here to bring you juicy details on Latin America policy and the increasing role of migration policy in U.S. statecraft and national security strategy. And for the next few weeks, he'll be co-writing NatSec Daily with Daniella as she gets settled into the new role.
IT'S TUESDAY: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily! This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at [e-mail], and follow Eric on X @ebazaileimil.
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Keystrokes
BRITAIN BACKS OFF APPLE: The British government has let go of its demand that Apple give 'backdoor' access to user data, Director of National Intelligence TULSI GABBARD said today in a post on X. She said she'd been working with 'partners' in the U.K. to 'ensure Americans' private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected.'
Our colleague Mizy Clifton reports that the U.K. had ordered Apple to give it access to information secured by its 'Advanced Data Protection' software. Instead, Apple withdrew the software from the British market in February, saying it had 'never built a backdoor or master key' to its products and 'never will.'
Washington and London had clashed over the dispute, with The Financial Times reporting that Vice President JD VANCE was pressing the U.K. to back down.
The Complex
NATIONAL GUARD MEETS NDAA: As more Republican states send National Guard troops to Washington to support the president's alleged crackdown on violent crime in the nation's capital, two DMV lawmakers are working together to limit Trump's powers to deploy the Guard and plan to weave it into the NDAA.
Washington Del. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, and Maryland Sen. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, both Democrats, introduced a bill last week to grant the city autonomy over both its police forces and part-time military forces. Norton told our friends at Morning Defense that she's looking to include the legislation in the NDAA as an amendment when Congress reconvenes in September.
The legislation is unlikely to pass, given GOP control of both chambers. But it shows that the deployment of the guard remains a sharply contested issue along party lines.
On the Hill
AIDING AFGHAN ALLIES: A bipartisan group of lawmakers is looking to reinstate a State Department role tasked with finalizing relocation and protection efforts for Afghan allies who supported the U.S. during two decades of military operations in Afghanistan.
The bill, introduced by Reps. SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE (D-Calif.), DINA TITUS (D-Nev.), MICHAEL McCAUL (R-Texas) and MIKE LAWLER (R-N.Y.) would codify the role of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts and improve the processing of Afghan relocation cases. That role was axed during Secretary MARCO RUBIO's overhaul of the State Department earlier this summer, but lawmakers are concerned that the absence of the position will hurt the U.S.' ability to help Afghan allies.
Kamlager-Dove called the effort a 'matter of moral responsibility, national honor and global credibility' and praised Afghan allies 'who risked everything to protect our servicemembers.'
'Their courage helped save American lives, and now it is our duty to protect theirs. This is not just about policy — it's about principle,' she continued.
The bill's future is uncertain. Though lawmakers in both parties have championed the plight of Afghan allies, the Trump administration has refused to expand legal pathways for migration. The administration also revoked temporary protected status for 9,000 Afghan refugees.
Transitions
— CHRISTOPHER KIRCHHOFF is joining Scale AI as head of applied AI strategy and global security. He founded the Pentagon's Silicon Valley office and previously worked for the White House National Security Council and Google.
— Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. DAVID ALLVIN said Monday that he plans to retire in the fall, a surprise move just halfway into his four-year term atop the military service, as our own Jack Detsch, Paul McLeary and Connor O'Brien reported Monday night.
— Former Homeland Security Secretary KIRSTJEN NIELSEN has joined the advisory board of Auburn University's McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security.
— BECCA WASSER is now defense lead at Bloomberg Economics. She was previously deputy director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security.
— BISHOP GARRISON has launched Orange Court Strategies. He most recently was vice president for policy with the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and worked at the Defense Department during the Biden administration.
— COREY BROSCHAK is now senior director of institutional affairs at the Brookings Institution. He most recently was acting deputy director of the global resilience team within the Arctic and Global Resilience Office at the Defense Department.
— MAHEEN HAQ is now a program and policy administrative assistant at the U.S. Council for International Business. She previously was at DGA Group.
What to Read
— Jared Mitovich, POLITICO: 'I Don't Think There's a Government in Latin America That Has Given In More'
— Chao Deng, The Wall Street Journal: How an Impossible Journey to the U.S. Gave an Injured Boy From Gaza a New Chance
— Heather Conley: American Enterprise Institute: Putin Embraces 'Russian America'
Tomorrow Today
— Center for Strategic and International Studies, 10 a.m.: The Future of U.S.-Australia Critical Minerals Cooperation
— New America, 10 a.m.: A virtual book discussion on 'Great Power, Great Responsibility: How the Liberal International Order Shapes U.S. Foreign Policy'
Thanks to our editors, Rosie Perper and Emily Lussier, who should never be trusted to count ballots by hand.