President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Monday with a lengthy post attacking mail-in ballots and voting machines.
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” Trump wrote. He also criticized voting machines, calling them “Highly Inaccurate, Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial,” while saying paper ballots with watermarks are more trustworthy.
Trump claimed, without evidence, that “we are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting.” He added that Democrats would “strongly oppose” his plan because “they cheat at levels never seen before.” Trump promised to sign an executive order to begin this effort before the 2026 midterms.
However, Trump cannot actually eliminate mail-in voting on his own. The U.S. Constitution gives states the power to decide how elections are run, and only Congress can override state voting laws.
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Meeting With Putin Sparked Comments
Trump’s new push comes after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15. During an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Trump said Putin told him that mail-in voting had rigged the 2020 election.
“Vladimir Putin said…‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,’” Trump said. According to Trump, Putin also told him, “You won that election by so much.”
Trump has long claimed — without evidence — that his 2020 loss to Joe Biden was the result of voter fraud.
But his claims don’t match the facts. An International IDEA report from October 2024 showed that 34 countries allow some form of mail-in voting. Twelve countries, including Canada, Germany, and South Korea, allow it for all voters. Even Russia allows remote electronic voting, after Putin signed it into law in 2020.
Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said on Face the Nation that Putin’s comments were meant to create “chaos” in U.S. elections.
What’s Next
Trump’s post came just before a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders. Trump said last week that there would be “severe consequences” if Putin did not end the war in Ukraine, but after their nearly three-hour talk, no deal was made.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded sharply to Trump’s online post. “Trump knows he is going to LOSE in 2026,” Newsom wrote on X. He accused the president of trying to “rig” elections and added, “This man reeks of DESPERATION.”
