On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that he would soon issue an executive order detailing the “legal justifications” for implementing national voter-identification measures.
In his late Friday posts on Truth Social, Trump expressed his desire to see voter-ID regulations put in place for the 2026 midterm elections, despite the likelihood that legislative action in this regard may stall in Congress.
“The Democrats are unwilling to support Voter I.D. or Citizenship. The explanation is straightforward — They aim to keep cheating in Elections,” Trump shared on Truth Social.
“This is not what our Founders intended. I have delved into the depths of Legal Arguments that have not yet been made or reviewed on this topic, and I will soon present an unassailable one. There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether Congress approves it or not!” he added.
In a follow-up post, issued shortly after the first, Trump stated, “If we cannot pass it through Congress, there are Legal reasons that this SCAM is not permissible. I will outline them soon, via an Executive Order.”
With growing pressure from Trump, along with his allies in Congress and conservative influencers online, the topic of voter ID has taken center stage in social media discussions and echoed throughout Congressional hallways in recent days. Trump’s statements have also generated anxiety among Democrats and voting-rights advocates that he may attempt to interfere in this year’s critical midterm elections, as Republicans strive to maintain narrow majorities in both houses.
The House approved, by a margin of 218-213, a Trump-supported elections bill called the SAVE America Act, which mandates proof of citizenship for voter registration and photo ID for casting ballots. Nearly all Democrats opposed the plan, which detractors claim could disenfranchise millions and hinder individuals, including women whose birth certificates do not reflect a married name, from registering.
The measure is now headed to the Senate, where it requires 60 votes to surpass a filibuster. Republicans currently have only 53 seats in the chamber, and one, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has publicly opposed the bill. A significant number of Democrats would need to back the legislation for it to succeed. So far, only one Senate Democrat, John Fetterman from Pennsylvania, has shown support for national voter-ID laws, although he remarked to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this week that he does not endorse other voting limitations like restricting mail-in voting.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has pledged that Democrats will block the legislation, deeming it “dead on arrival.”
“The SAVE Act is not a mainstream proposal at all. It’s a fringe bill that has now taken control of the Republican Party, pretending to be about election security when it’s actually about setting the stage to disrupt the midterm elections and make it significantly more challenging for people to vote,” Schumer stated from the Senate floor this week.
Trump has recently expressed his intent to nationalize federal elections and has revived various election conspiracy theories, including initiating an FBI probe into the election outcomes in Fulton County, Georgia, a state that the president has repeatedly and without substantiation declared he won in 2020.
Under the Constitution, states have authority over most facets of U.S. elections.
In his second post from Friday, Trump described the midterms in existential terms.
“(T)hese Corrupt and Deranged Democrats, should they ever seize control, will not only be adding two more States to our existing 50, laden with all their associated issues, but they will also PACK THE COURT with a total of 21 Supreme Court Justices, THEIR DREAM, which they will push through quickly, especially as they aim to abolish the Filibuster, likely within their first week, or sooner,” Trump remarked.
“Our Country will never be the same if they allow these deranged and malevolent individuals to willingly destroy it. Thank you for your attention to this matter — SAVE AMERICA!” he concluded.
