US President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to take control of voting systems across parts of the country, escalating his long-running effort to reshape how elections are run as the United States moves closer to pivotal midterm elections.
Speaking during a podcast interview released on Monday, Donald Trump told conservative commentator and former senior FBI official Dan Bongino that Republicans should seek to “take over” the administration of elections. In the United States, elections are overseen by state and local authorities rather than the federal government.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over; we should take over the voting,’” Trump said, adding that his party “ought to nationalise the voting” in 15 locations. He did not specify which jurisdictions he was referring to or explain how such a shift could be carried out under existing law.
During the interview, Trump again repeated his false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. That assertion has been repeatedly dismissed by courts, election officials and independent reviews but remains a central element of Trump’s political narrative.
The comments come as Republicans face mounting political pressure ahead of the November midterms, which could threaten the party’s narrow control of Congress. Concerns over the cost of living, alongside growing criticism of aggressive immigration enforcement operations — including actions in Minneapolis earlier this year that resulted in two deaths — have contributed to voter unease.
Trump’s remarks also follow renewed attention on election infrastructure. Last week, the FBI carried out a search at an election centre in Georgia, a state that was central to unfounded allegations of voter fraud after the 2020 race. The operation has revived debate over election security and federal involvement in state-run voting systems.
Separately, Trump has encouraged Republican-led states to redraw electoral maps in ways that would benefit his party, a legal but highly contentious practice known as gerrymandering.
Recent election results have raised concerns within Republican circles about shifting voter sentiment. Over the weekend, a Democratic candidate won a state Senate seat in a district long considered a Republican stronghold in Texas. The outcome followed a series of Democratic victories in recent months, including gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia, and the election of left-wing candidate Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City last November.
Since returning to office a year ago, Trump has pursued an aggressive approach toward perceived political opponents, removing government officials deemed disloyal, targeting law firms linked to previous legal cases against him, and withdrawing federal funding from several universities.
Trump was indicted in 2023 by federal prosecutors and by authorities in Georgia over alleged attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election. Those cases were dropped following his re-election in 2024, but they continue to shape national debate over democratic norms, the rule of law and the limits of presidential power.
As campaigning intensifies ahead of the midterms, Trump’s latest comments are expected to fuel further scrutiny of his approach to elections and renew concerns about the balance between federal authority and state control in the US democratic system.
