Independent entities have been reduced as Trump warns of election dangers. – Independent national agencies that would typically deal with election security challenges, like those the president said the United States is facing, have been reduced or crippled by President Donald Trump since taking office.
Trump claimed China meddled in the 2020 election and said that U.S. elections are susceptible to foreign meddling in his July 16 White House speech. He claimed that for years, the government had “blatantly lied to” Americans about the security of election infrastructure, including as voting machines and ballot-counting systems, making unverifiable assertions.
According to Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a nonpartisan think tank, some of the organizations that refuted Trump’s unfounded allegations of 2020 election fraud have seen a steady reduction in staff since 2025, weakening their capacity to be a reliable voice for election officials and American voters.Weiser stated, “This is an attempt by our own president, the federal government, his administration, and the system to erode confidence in our election system.
Weiser and other experts told that state election authorities will be responsible for ensuring election security in the absence of those reliable federal voices.
Following the 2020 election, CISA stated that there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes.”
Election administration is left to the states under the Constitution. However, federal agencies have become more involved in cybersecurity in recent decades, freely testing election devices and disseminating information about possible electoral risks.
Two of the three members of the federal Election Assistance Commission were fired by Trump on July 9. This weakened the only government organization dedicated exclusively to assisting local election officials in getting ready for the midterm elections in 2026.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which assists states in preparing for cyber threats, has lost funding and election security personnel within the last 18 months. In the months preceding Election Day, the agency stood up for the country’s election security system despite Trump’s constant threats of huge fraud that never happened.
CISA declared in a statement shortly after the 2020 election that the general election was the “most secure in American history,” when Trump was still challenging former President Joe Biden’s victory.A coalition of election security organizations, including the National Association of State Election Directors, joined CISA in reporting at the time that “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
Christopher Krebs, the head of the agency, was fired by Trump a few days later.Providing an explanation of the facts instead of comforting
Before the midterms, state and local election authorities have already expressed dissatisfaction at a sharp decline in federal security support since Trump took office. Additionally, they have stated that they don’t trust federal agencies to consistently communicate election-related threats.
On July 16, Trump declared that his administration is dedicated to resolving the issues he brought up.In addition to pledging to cooperate with those states and local governments to assist them in patching known technological vulnerabilities prior to the midterm elections, we are committed to fixing it,” he stated.
Trump’s actions to reduce federal agencies and put the Justice Department at war with state election officials, according to Weiser, should “raise eyebrows.” Voting records and ballots have been confiscated by federal authorities, who have also put pressure on states to implement election practices that his government supports.Weiser stated, “The administration has destroyed all of the federal programs that were available to help states with election administration and election security across the government, while at the same time claiming that there are various threats to our elections.”
It is “certainly a problem,” she argued, that there isn’t a trustworthy independent, nonpartisan voice at the federal level.The unfortunate part is that we are currently unable to trust our federal government over any of this, and they have damaged both their own and our wonderful government’s credibility,” she stated.
According to Jennifer Gaudette, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside, state and local election authorities should promptly refute Trump’s assertions on July 17 with information on how elections are conducted in their respective jurisdictions. According to her research, when the president presents election-related falsehoods alongside the truth, people are less likely to believe it.”I’m really hopeful that more state secretaries and election officials will be out there simply stating the facts rather than offering reassurance,” she stated.
Democrat Tobias Read, the secretary of state for Oregon, stated that he anticipates prompt, detailed responses from state and local election officials.”Elections are important, and when people talk about them in inaccurate ways, that is dangerous,” he stated.
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