President Donald Trump isn’t dismissing the possibility that he could declare a national security emergency in an attempt to establish new voting restrictions stalled in the Senate, telling an interviewer that “stranger things have happened.”
Trump has spent weeks hammering senators to pass the SAVE America Act, legislation that would greatly restrict mail-in voting and mandate proof of citizenship and a photo ID to cast a ballot.
The bill is Trump’s top legislative priority, but it has struggled to attract enough support in the Senate, and lawmakers left for their August recess last week without passing it.
During a Real America’s Voice interview with Trump on Aug. 10, host Wayne Allyn Root suggested bypassing the Senate and taking executive action
to implement elements of the SAVE America Act, a move that almost certainly would be challenged in court.
“Let me put an idea in your head, OK?” Root said, adding: “You have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections … so if you do this in the next month we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship and a limit to mail-in ballots.”
“Let me just say that stranger things have happened, OK?” Trump responded. “I’ll leave it at that.”
The comments come as Trump has taken steps to assert greater federal authority over elections, which are administered by state and local officials. Trump suggested earlier this year that Republicans should “nationalize” the voting process, generating bipartisan pushback and alarming opponents who worried about the fairness of future contests.
The president issued an executive order in March that moved to exert federal control over voter rolls and mail-in ballots. Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to develop lists of eligible voters in each state and ordered the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver ballots to voters on the approved lists.
The move escalated Trump’s bid to place new restrictions on voting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake. It was quickly challenged in court by Democrat-led states, and on June 25 a federal judge in Boston blocked the order.
The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on July 27 seeking permission to implement two provisions in the order. The states that brought the lawsuit responded in a court filing that there would be “extraordinary consequences” from allowing the order to proceed.
Trump has argued that new voting rules are needed to safeguard elections as he makes unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud. Democrats and voting rights groups say the SAVE America Act would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.
Contributing: Sarah Wire
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump doesn't dismiss declaring national emergency to restrict voting
