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President Donald Trump said Monday he plans to sign an executive order banning mail-in ballots and eliminating what he called “seriously controversial” voting machines before the 2026 midterm elections, intensifying his yearslong campaign against methods of voting he has baselessly linked to fraud.
In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that countries worldwide had abandoned mail-in voting “because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.” He pledged to replace ballot machines with what he described as “accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election.”
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,” Trump wrote. “We will begin this effort … by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
The announcement marks Trump’s latest attempt to reshape the nation’s voting system through presidential action, even as courts have repeatedly ruled that federal law gives states wide latitude to set election procedures. In June, a federal judge blocked part of an earlier Trump order seeking to stop states from counting mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day but received later, saying the president lacked authority to impose state election deadlines.
Despite those legal setbacks, Trump asserted Monday that states have only a limited role in elections. “Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,” he said. “They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY.”
Election officials from both parties have repeatedly rejected Trump’s claims of widespread fraud. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission reported that nearly a third of voters in 2024 — 30.3 percent — cast ballots by mail. That was down from the record 43 percent during the pandemic-driven 2020 election but still far above pre-2020 levels.
Voting-rights advocates quickly condemned Trump’s pledge, saying it seeks to undermine access and confidence in elections. Democrats have accused the president of manufacturing false claims of fraud to justify curtailing voting options used by millions of Americans, including military personnel, seniors and rural voters.
Trump, however, insisted Democrats are “virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM” and vowed to fight to prevent what he called “dishonest elections.”
“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL-IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” Trump wrote. “THE MAIL-IN BALLOT HOAX, USING VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, MUST END, NOW!!!”
The president’s order is expected to face immediate legal challenges and could set up another clash between the White House and state governments over election authority, even as the 2026 campaigns begin to take shape.
