Trump escalates election rhetoric and calls on Republicans to “nationalize” elections. What does this mean

The statements, made in a conservative podcast, come after a series of measures by which the Trump administration tries to exercise greater control over the election, write Reuters and the New York Times.

President Donald Trump said Monday that Republicans should “nationalize” and “take control” of voting in at least 15 places, reiterating claims that the US election is marred by widespread fraud.

Speaking in an interview on his former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino's podcast, Trump did not elaborate on his intentions but again talked about immigrants voting illegally in the election – an unproven claim, according to US media.

“These people were brought into our country to vote, and they're voting illegally. And, you know, it's amazing that the Republicans aren't tougher on this,” the president said.

“Republicans should say: We want to take control. We should take control of the vote, at least in many, 15 places. Republicans should nationalize the vote,” Trump said in the interview.

Against the Constitution

Trump did not specify the locations, but said: “We have states that are so corrupt and counting the votes. We have states that we won, but it shows that we didn't win.”

The president's suggestion contravenes constitutional electoral rules, writes Politico.

Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state laws, resulting in a decentralized process where voting is administered by local and municipal officials in thousands of electoral districts across the country.

But Trump has repeatedly claimed the election is rigged and that Democrats are hatching a vast conspiracy to get undocumented immigrants to vote and boost the party's voter turnout.

Trump's strategy

His statement comes less than a week after the FBI raided an election office outside Atlanta, seizing ballots and other election documents from the 2020 election — which Trump claims he won.

The Justice Department has asked several states, including Minnesota, to hand over their full voter rolls as the Trump administration seeks to create a national voter registry.

In March, Trump signed a presidential executive order that sought to make significant changes to the election process, including requiring proof of citizenship and requiring all mail-in ballots to be received by the close of the polls on Election Day.

But this initiative was largely rejected by the courts.

On social media, Trump pushed for even more drastic changes. In August, he wrote that he wanted to end the use of mail-in ballots and eventually the use of voting machines.

The president's claims of election fraud have been repeatedly debunked by both independent reviews and Republican officials. A review of the 2024 election by the Trump administration, which began last year, found no significant evidence of widespread voter fraud by non-citizens until last month, according to the New York Times.

The November elections: an important moment

Trump's increasingly vehement statements about the election come at a time when Democrats have defeated the Republican Party in a number of electoral contests.

New Jersey and Virginia overwhelmingly elected Democratic governors in November, and on Saturday a Democrat won a special election for a Texas state Senate seat by 14 percentage points in a district Trump had won by 17 points in 2024, a huge turnaround.

Sensing that Republicans were on the brink of possible defeat in November's midterm elections, Trump launched an extraordinary effort last year to alter congressional maps to give his party an advantage.

This initiative, which began in Texas but later expanded to both Democratic- and Republican-controlled states, has become a central part of the president's midterm strategy.

So far, the president's comments regarding the nationalization of elections have been met with negative reactions.

Republican Representative Don Bacon said on X: “I opposed nationalization of elections when House Speaker Pelosi wanted sweeping changes to elections in all 50 states. I will oppose it now.”

Separately, Michigan Department of State spokeswoman Cheri Hardmon said: “The US Constitution gives states responsibility for elections, not the federal government. That's the law.”