Overview
- In a podcast interview, President Trump said Republicans should "take over" the voting in at least 15 places, repeating unsupported claims of illegal voting by noncitizens.
- The White House later said he was referring to the GOP-backed SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register and set uniform voter ID rules, a proposal critics say could wrongly disenfranchise eligible voters.
- Elections are run by state and local officials under the Elections Clause, and federal judges have largely blocked a prior Trump order to add proof-of-citizenship requirements to national registration forms.
- Republican leaders including Sen. John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson rejected federalizing elections while backing voter ID measures, as Democrats such as Sen. Chuck Schumer called the idea illegal.
- The remarks followed the FBI’s court-authorized search of Fulton County’s election office for 2020 records, with DNI Tulsi Gabbard facilitating a brief call between agents and Trump, as DOJ lawsuits seeking state voter rolls continue.