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President Trump on Tuesday left the door open to declaring a national security emergency and federalizing control over the November midterms.
Conservative commentator Wayne Root suggested during an interview with Trump that the president could declare a national emergency if the Senate does not pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act.
The legislation, which Trump and hardline House GOP lawmakers have pushed Senate Republicans to pass for months, proposes requiring Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and a photo ID at the polls.
“If you do this in the next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship, and a limit to mail-in ballots and you don’t even need the Senate’s help,” Root said to the president, regarding him declaring a national emergency.
Trump cut Root off, saying, “Let me just say that stranger things have happened, okay? I’ll leave it at that.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment on the president’s remarks.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Trump and Senate conservatives reached a deal on Friday to defer action on much of the SAVE America Act until after the August recess. The upper chamber returns from its summer break on Sept. 14.
The president has made election integrity a centerpiece of his agenda dating to 2020, after he lost the presidential election that year to former President Biden. Trump has falsely claimed he beat Biden in 2020, pointing to his concerns over mail-in ballots.
The president signed an executive order in March directing the U.S. Postal Service to restrict delivery of mail-in and absentee ballots that don’t provide eligible voter lists to the federal government.
Postmaster General David Steiner went ahead with that directive, telling senators in June the policy will ensure “the right ballots are going to the right people.” A federal judge in June blocked the administration from seeking state data on eligible voters, while another barred the USPS from implementing the delivery changes in July.
While a federal appeals court in July halted the latter lower court order and allowed the USPS to move forward with the changes, Trump’s executive order remains void in nearly two dozen states under the June order.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who issued that order in June, reinforced her block on Trump’s proposed mail-in voting restrictions on Tuesday.
If the president were to declare a national emergency and federalize the midterms, Congress could prevent him from doing so via a joint resolution — which would likely require veto-proof two-thirds majorities in both chambers.
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