Trump Demands Republicans Nationalize Voting in 15 States

Donald Trump called for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting across the United States during a podcast interview with Dan Bongino released Monday, demanding that Republicans “take over” election procedures in at least 15 unnamed states. This represents an escalation of Trump’s ongoing efforts to seize control of American election administration, which is constitutionally governed by state and local authorities across thousands of precincts nationwide. Trump’s demand contradicts the foundational structure of U.S. elections and follows his earlier assertion that states function as federal agents in elections.

Trump’s call to centralize voting authority is grounded in his repeated false claims that American elections are plagued by fraud and that Democrats orchestrate a conspiracy to enable undocumented immigrants to vote and boost Democratic turnout. These assertions have been comprehensively rejected by election officials, courts, and his own administration officials, yet Trump continues to weaponize them to justify dismantling electoral decentralization and concentrating voting power under Republican control.

This demand follows a series of actions by Trump’s administration designed to subordinate elections to federal—and specifically presidential—control. Last week, F.B.I. agents seized ballots and voting records from the 2020 election at an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, where Trump’s allies have pursued baseless fraud allegations for years. Trump personally contacted the F.B.I. agents involved in the raid to praise and thank them, demonstrating direct presidential involvement in weaponizing federal law enforcement against elections.

Centralizing election administration under partisan political control is a hallmark of authoritarian governance and has preceded democratic collapse in numerous countries. By consolidating voting mechanisms under Republican authority and eliminating the checks provided by decentralized state and local administration, Trump seeks to eliminate the institutional barriers preventing a single faction from unilaterally determining electoral outcomes and securing indefinite political power.

(Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/us/politics/trump-nationalize-elections.html)