President Donald Trump on Monday declared that the Republican Party should “nationalize the voting” in the US and take away individual states’ power to administer their elections.
While speaking with Dan Bongino, a former FBI deputy director and current podcaster, Trump rehashed the false allegations he’s made in the past about Democrats only winning elections through the help of undocumented immigrants.
“These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally!” Trump falsely claimed. “Amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on it. The Republicans should say… ‘We should take over the voting in at least… 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Trump: "These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally. The Republicans should say, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that I won that show I didn’t win. You’re gonna see… pic.twitter.com/H5hT3OvtLE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 2, 2026
Trump then continued to rehash his lies about winning the 2020 election that he lost to former President Joe Biden.
“We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes, we have states that I won that show I didn’t win!” he said. “Now, you’re going to see something in Georgia, where they were able to get with a court order the ballots, you’re going to see some interesting things come out. But, you know, the 2020 election, I won that election by so much. And everybody knows it!”
In fact, Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden at both the national level and in the state of Georgia, which has a Republican governor, a Republican secretary of state, and a Republican-run Legislature.
Last week, the FBI executed a search warrant at Georgia’s Fulton County election hub and hauled out boxes of ballots as part of an investigation related to the 2020 election.
Some Trump critics reacted to his latest outburst about “nationalizing” the vote by noting how incredibly unlikely the president would be to succeed in such an endeavor.
“Neither Trump nor the GOP in Congress have this power, and the only way they do this is if we decline to stand up for our rights,” wrote Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, in a social media post. “He’s had a string of electoral defeats and rightfully fears the midterms. His outbursts are real threats, but they come from weakness. Tough shit, he’s going down. No Kings.”
MS NOW contributor Philip Bump also expressed skepticism about Trump’s scheme, which conflicts with Article I of the US Constitution.
“Trump doesn’t have the power to federalize elections, which obviously doesn’t mean it’s OK that he’s saying things like this,” he wrote. “The stuff about ginning up bullshit in Atlanta—we’ll see.”
Political strategist Murshed Zaheed likewise advised his social media followers to “take a deep breath” before panicking over Trump’s plans.
“Trump cannot change election/voting rules with [executive orders],” he wrote. “Of course they are going to try crazy stuff—but this is desperate attempt to gin up fear.”
Other critics, however, said that Trump’s remarks needed to be taken as a direct threat to democratic governance.
“He’s saying the quiet part out loud,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). “Trump and MAGA Republicans can’t win with their unpopular policies at the ballot box, so they want to steal the 2026 election.”
Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan expressed even greater alarm.
“The last time he started talking like this, his allies minimized the risks and we ended up with January 6,” he warned, referring to the deadly riots carried out by Trump supporters on the US Capitol that sent lawmakers running for their lives. “This time we must take him literally and seriously. These comments are a five-alarm fire for democracy. In a functioning republic, he would be impeached and removed from office today.”
Trump’s comments come as Republicans in Congress push a bill that would enable massive voter purges, impose photo ID requirements, and ban ranked-choice voting, universal mail-in ballots, and the acceptance of mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
He will do it and nobody will stop him. Thats the way the world is, now. At least the US
Add to the long list of red lines that Trump “couldn’t possibly” cross without pushback or repercussions.
Party of small government ladies and others
Although Bump and others are correct that he lacks thr current authority to do this, Nyhan is right. Ignoring Trump risks the unintended consequences or what they might pull off. Not to mention the slide that is already being attempted through gerrymandering.
An interesting part of this was the claim that it can’t happen unless “we decline to stand up for our rights”. From afar it already looks like many mercans already “decline to stand up for their rights”.
I don’t understand why United States citizens aren’t out in the streets on the scale of France or Iran.
They literally are
deleted by creator
oh they have 400 excuses… country is too big, can’t stop working, we are not there yet, what am I supposed to do, what are you doing, etc
MN finally woke up after literally being murdered by the gov
Hey guy shut the fuck up there are protests literally everywhere.
Are they on the scale of the Rodney King riots? If not, you’re doing them wrong.
It’s not about inciting, it’s about how seriously you take your enemy.
Larger just not riots.
The largest protests in us history occurred like last month and there’s been a large protest literally every day since Trump took office.
Throw yourself in front of a bus don’t just urge others to do something you’re too scared to do yourself.
Protests that can be ignored accomplish nothing!
Non-violent and peaceful are not the same.
Be non-violent! But do not be peaceful. And I do not mean “just riot in the streets” be specific and intelligent in what you do.
Also be strategic, be unarmed. Start carrying nails and paint. They need windshields they can see through and air in their tires. Do something to prevent them from doing their job.
A gun didn’t help Alex Pretti, you do not need to be armed. In fact it might make things worse.
I WOULD do something, if I were an American citizen.
I’m from Canada, and I have to watch the shit show going on, and wonder if you guys are going to invade us. The orange pedophile has certainly threatened to do so, for annex is merely a pretty way of saying invade.
That doesn’t remove your right to protest, anyone who is in the country has a right to protest.
You don’t say? Yet another Canadian sham account urging open revolt, surely there’s no nefarious reason behind that.
I’m not in the US, therefore I have little effect in the domestic area, but if I lived there, I certainly would be taking part.
As for the comment on the sham account encouraging open revolt? What do you think is required to prevent further governmental homicides, like Alex Pretti? Do YOU have a better solution to fix YOUR country? Why do YOU expect the REST OF THE WORLD to fix YOUR problems? Grow up.
In the last couple of weeks? sure, as I said, after the murders…
All of last year all you guys did was “wait for it”… oh and the nice “no king” stuff on Sundays to make sure they could be easily ignored
Dumb. We’re currently in the longest string of protests in written us history including the largest peaceful protest in our history.
It’s not even hard to figure out.
Correct… in the last couple of weeks, you know? right after electing a 34 time convicted felon, rapist, pedophile to the highest office in your country FOR A SECOND TIME
There have been more in the last two weeks, you’re uninformed or you’re willfully spouting bullshit and I’m not sure which is worse at this point.
Considering the stakes, there should be A LOT more from last year
But look, if you are right and the USA is on the verge of a general strike to stop Trump, that is good for you (and the rest of the world), I have no problem being wrong this way… but I think you are just deluding yourself
