Trump called on Republicans to “take over” and “nationalize” elections across the country in an interview that aired Monday, a brazen suggestion that runs directly contrary to the U.S. Constitution’s explicit delegation of election administration to the states.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places,'” Trump told Dan Bongino, the former FBI Deputy Director who recently returned to podcasting. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes.”
Let’s be clear about what the president is proposing: federal seizure of a power the Framers deliberately placed in state hands. Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution states that “the times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the Legislature thereof.” Congress can pass regulations, but the president has no unilateral authority to nationalize elections.
Even Republicans Are Pushing Back
The remarks drew swift criticism from both sides of the aisle, including from within Trump’s own party. Nebraska Representative Don Bacon, a Republican, posted on X: “I opposed nationalizing elections when Speaker Pelosi wanted major changes to elections in all 50 states. I’ll oppose this now as well.”
Justin Amash, the libertarian Republican Constitutional conservative, was even more direct: “Republicans should not, in fact, ‘nationalize the voting.’ If you were worried about election integrity before, this would make things infinitely worse. Decentralized elections are one of the greatest protections against large-scale fraud and abuse.”
Michigan’s Department of State spokesperson Cheri Hardmon issued a blunt response: “The U.S. Constitution puts states in charge of elections, not the federal government. That’s the law.”
Schumer: ‘Does Donald Trump Need a Copy of the Constitution?’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer went straight to the Senate floor to respond. “Just a few hours ago, Donald Trump said he wants to nationalize elections around the country,” Schumer said. “Does Donald Trump need a copy of the Constitution? What he is saying is outlandishly illegal.”
The White House attempted to walk back the comments, with spokesperson Abigail Jackson offering a statement that didn’t actually explain what Trump meant: “President Trump cares deeply about the safety and security of our elections. That’s why he’s urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act and other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting.”
That statement notably does not address what “nationalizing” elections would look like, which 15 “places” Trump was referring to, or how the federal government would legally take over state election systems.
The Fulton County Backdrop
Trump’s comments arrived less than a week after the FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia election operations center, seizing approximately 700 boxes of materials including physical ballots, tabulator tapes, and voter rolls from the 2020 election. The raid stunned local officials who had no advance notice.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was photographed at the scene during the raid, an unusual presence for domestic law enforcement activity that drew questions from Senate Intelligence Committee members. According to The New York Times, Trump spoke by cellphone with FBI agents conducting the search the following day during a meeting they had with Gabbard, a significant departure from law enforcement norms.
Fulton County officials are now filing a lawsuit challenging the legality of the warrant and the seizure of election records. “This is not about 2020. This is about 2026. This is about who controls what comes next,” State Senator Nabilah Parkes warned.
Courts Have Already Blocked Trump’s Election Power Grabs
Federal courts have already demonstrated little patience for Trump’s attempts to reshape election rules by executive fiat. Just last week, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked provisions of Trump’s March 2025 executive order that would have required voters to prove citizenship when registering.
“The Framers of our Constitution recognized that power over election rules could be abused, either to destroy the national government or to disempower the people from acting as a check on their elected representatives,” Judge Kollar-Kotelly wrote. “Accordingly, they entrusted this power to the parts of our government that they believed would be most responsive to the will of the people: first to the States, and then, in some instances, to Congress.”
Not, notably, to the president.
The Midterm Stakes
The timing of Trump’s comments is hardly coincidental. The 2026 midterm elections in November will determine control of Congress for the next two years, and Republicans currently hold razor-thin majorities in both chambers. Midterm elections historically punish the sitting president’s party.
Trump warned Republicans last month that they must win the midterms or he will face impeachment. The president has also been on an aggressive midterm campaign schedule, holding a rally in Iowa last week where he cautioned supporters that losing Congress would jeopardize his tax cuts, border policies, and broader second-term agenda.
Democratic officials in multiple states are already preparing for potential federal interference. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told CNN last month that he and colleagues have discussed “a range of moves, from seeking to protect voters from interactions with federal law enforcement at polling places to navigating the administration’s push for access to personal information about tens of millions of voters.”
“This is now a legitimate planning category,” Simon said. “It’s extraordinarily sad, but it would be irresponsible for us to disregard the possibility.”
What Comes Next
The Justice Department has sued dozens of states seeking access to voter rolls, and the Fulton County raid suggests the administration is willing to deploy federal law enforcement in pursuit of Trump’s long-debunked fraud claims. Georgia officials audited and certified the 2020 results multiple times. Courts rejected every challenge. None of that has stopped the president from insisting he actually won states that certified his loss.
Trump did not specify which 15 “places” he believes Republicans should target, but the implication is clear: he’s talking about Democratic-leaning jurisdictions in swing states where he lost or underperformed. The same places he’s been claiming, without evidence, have been “stealing” elections for years.
Whether Congressional Republicans will go along with this remains to be seen. Don Bacon’s quick rejection suggests there are limits to what the party’s moderates will tolerate. But with midterm control of Congress on the line and a president willing to deploy federal agents to seize ballot boxes, the next nine months will test those limits in ways American democracy hasn’t experienced in generations.