Donald Trump threatened on Friday to impose a requirement that US voters present photo identification before being allowed to cast ballots in the upcoming midterm elections.
Trump insisted he will push for the change even if Congress fails to pass the Save America act, which cleared the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The bill would impose a national photo identification requirement to vote, in addition to requiring proof of citizenship to register and drastically limiting mail-in voting.
“There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!” Trump posted while onboard Air Force One on Friday afternoon after speaking to troops at Fort Bragg.
“Also, the People of our Country are insisting on Citizenship, and No Mail-In Ballots, with exceptions for Military, Disability, Illness, or Travel,” the president added, falsely, since there is no popular majority for banning vote by mail.
In fact, polling conducted last year showed the exact opposite: 58% of Americans favor allowing any voter to cast their ballot by mail if they want to.
Trump’s efforts to impose voter ID requirements are likely to face immediate legal challenges, as the US constitution leaves the conduct of elections to the states.
The president, however, claimed to have “searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one” that would allow the federal government to take unprecedented control of elections run by the states. But in a second post during his flight to his Palm Beach resort, he offered more hyperbole than facts, in a long diatribe punctuated with all-caps words.
“We cannot let the Democrats get away with NO VOTER I.D. any longer. These are horrible, disingenuous CHEATERS,” Trump wrote.
“If we can’t get it through Congress, there are Legal reasons why this SCAM is not permitted. I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order,” Trump added.
“I hope the Supreme Court realizes, as they ‘painstakingly’ review the very simple topic of Country Saving Tariffs … that these Corrupt and Deranged Democrats, if they ever gain power, will not only be adding two States to our roster of 50, with all of the baggage thereto, but will also PACK THE COURT,” the president posted.
Trump has long alleged systemic voter fraud contributed to his 2020 presidential election loss, despite no evidence to back up that claim.
Trump signed an executive order last year requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and blocking states from accepting mail-in ballots received after election day, even if they were postmarked before then. A federal judge blocked the citizenship requirement in October, saying the president “lacks the authority to direct such changes”.
