Fight against alleged fraud Why Donald Trump wants to make elections a top priority
In the USA, elections are run by the states. The White House wants to change this - and is citing electoral fraud for which it has not yet presented any evidence on this scale.
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- Donald Trump is mobilizing more and more forces to uncover cases of electoral fraud. So far, there is no evidence that this has reached a level that is relevant to the outcome of an election.
- In future, US citizens will only be able to vote with a valid ID.
- Trump wants to take responsibility for conducting elections away from the states and place it in the hands of the federal government. In this case, they would be in the hands of officials close to the White House.
- Trump is facing resistance to both plans, including from within his own ranks. If necessary, he wants to push them through with a presidential decree.
More than a year into his second term in office, Donald Trump is still convinced that he was the victim of electoral fraud in 2020. To prove this, the US President is now deploying the Department of Homeland Security alongside the Department of Justice to track down illegally cast votes across the country.
This is according to an internal memo from an agency under the Department of Homeland Security, which is available to the "New York Times". According to the memo, all employees are required to review "all open and closed cases of voter fraud" committed by immigrants who voted before becoming US citizens or registering to vote.
Rationally, it seems strange that the White House is prioritizing the fight against voter fraud so much. There is simply too little evidence that it has played a particularly large role in past elections.
Few proven cases of fraud
Previous efforts by the administration to uncover widespread electoral fraud have so far borne very little fruit. Around 10,000 registrations to vote have been forwarded by officials to the relevant authorities for further investigation. Out of 49.5 million registered voters, this corresponds to only around 0.02 percent.
However, the government has repeatedly encountered resistance to its plans from the authorities in the affected states such as Michigan, Minnesota and California, on whose cooperation it is legally dependent - for the time being. So far, it has taken legal action against this without success. In Louisiana, Ohio and Texas, the authorities cooperated without any problems.
On a confrontation course with the values of his own party
It is no coincidence that Trump is now increasing the pressure. After all, the increased priority in this matter is not only related to the penultimate election in the past, which the Republican lost to Democrat Joe Biden: the President is also thinking about the future in this context - and the immediate future at that.
This is because the mid-term elections are due in the USA in November - and by then Trump wants to have ensured that the individual states are no longer responsible for conducting elections. According to Trump's vision, the federal government should be responsible in future.
This obvious break with his party's political philosophy - the Republicans traditionally advocate strengthening the rights of the states over those of the federal government - is justified by the fact that a truly fair election cannot currently be guaranteed.
The White House would like to achieve this by introducing an ID requirement when voting. "You need ID to buy alcohol. You need an ID to go to a library and look at a book. So the president believes you should also have an ID "to vote in our nation," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The House of Representatives has already approved a similar bill in 2025. The Senate has not yet succeeded in passing the bill, although the Republicans also hold the majority there.
If necessary, Trump will do it without Congress
However, Donald Trump has already signaled that his plan should not fail due to a lack of support from Congress. On his short message service Truth Social, he announced that the ID requirement would apply in the midterm elections "whether Congress agrees or not". This would be done on the basis of "legal grounds", which he intends to present "soon in the form of a presidential executive order".
For critics, it is clear that with this move, Trump wants to ensure that the election is in the hands of federal officials close to the White House. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem seemed to confirm fears that the fight against election fraud was a pretext for the government to gain control over the results of the elections. Most recently, she said they wanted to "make sure the right people vote to elect the right leaders to lead this country".
The introduction of an ID requirement would probably not be unpopular. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 60 percent of Americans are strongly in favor, with a further 23 percent at least leaning towards approval. However, according to a survey conducted in 2024, only 46% of registered voters have a valid passport.
Trump's approval ratings, meanwhile, are anything but rosy. If the Democrats contest too many seats in Congress with the Republicans, the President will have greater difficulties pushing through his plans in Congress. Republican dissenters are already getting in his way more and more often.
