President Donald Trump suggested Monday that Republicans may need to “nationalize the voting” in order to secure U.S. elections, arguing that too many states cannot be trusted to properly count ballots and warning that new revelations could soon emerge from a federal probe in Georgia.
In an interview with conservative podcaster and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, Trump said Republicans should consider taking control of election administration in multiple jurisdictions, calling it the only way to restore confidence in the system.
“The Republicans should say, we want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places,” Trump said. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Trump claimed that some states are deeply corrupt and accused them of mishandling vote counts, including in states he says he won but was not credited with victories. He specifically pointed to Georgia, predicting that “interesting things” would come out following recent developments tied to the 2020 election.
“Now, you’re going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get the ballots with the court order,” Trump said. “You will see some interesting things come out. But like the 2020 election. I won that election by so much. Everybody knows it.”
Last Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided a Georgia election office and seized roughly 700 boxes of election materials. The raid was reportedly connected to a federal investigation into alleged interference in the 2020 election, which Trump lost to former President Joe Biden. Trump has repeatedly argued that the 2020 election in Georgia was rigged against him. Official results showed Biden winning the state by fewer than 12,000 votes.
Fulton County officials have questioned the legality of the FBI’s search and said the county plans to sue in an effort to force the federal government to return the seized ballots.
Asked about Trump’s remarks, a White House official told The Daily Wire that the president does not believe many states take election security seriously. The official pointed to more than a dozen states, including California, New York, and Illinois, that do not require photo identification to vote, and accused several states of refusing to comply with federal requirements to share voter-roll information.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump has consistently pushed for stronger election safeguards, including passage of the SAVE Act.
“President Trump cares deeply about the safety and security of our elections,” Jackson said, noting that Trump has urged Congress to pass legislation establishing uniform photo ID requirements, banning no-excuse mail-in voting, and ending ballot harvesting.
The SAVE Act, which passed the House last year, would require voters to present identification and proof of citizenship before voting. The measure has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Trump also warned that Republicans must aggressively address illegal immigration if they hope to remain competitive in future elections. He told Bongino that millions of illegal immigrants were allowed into the country under Biden and argued that failure to deport them would doom the GOP electorally.
“If we don’t get them out, Republicans will never win another election,” Trump said, again insisting that he won the 2020 race in a landslide.
Trump also repeated claims about Minnesota, saying he believes he won the state in each of the last three presidential elections. Democrats officially carried Minnesota in those races, but Trump accused state leaders of corruption.
“They’re crooked officials,” Trump said. “I feel that I won Minnesota. I think I won it all three times … and I didn’t get credit for it.”
