US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to try to bypass Congress and force new voting laws ahead of the November midterm elections, where his Republican Party fears losing control of the legislature.
Trump said he would soon issue an executive order attempting to impose the rules if Congress does not pass a law requiring photo identification to vote and other nationwide reforms.
Any attempt would likely be met by a legal challenge that could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.
“There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“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,” he wrote.
While many jurisdictions across the United States require photo ID to cast ballots, not all do, with Trump and many Republicans arguing without evidence that those areas have permitted significant voter fraud.
The Trump-backed “SAVE America” election reform act passed in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives this week.
However, it is expected to fail in the Senate, where the Republican majority is too slim to pass the law without Democratic support.
In addition to requiring a photo ID to cast a ballot, the bill would also require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
There is no evidence of meaningful fraud in US elections and critics say that the bill’s measures would instead push millions of people away from casting ballots, because they don’t have a passport or a paper copy of their birth certificate.
An analysis by the Brennan Center found more than 21 million Americans lack easy access to such documents.
This would “disenfranchise Americans of all ages,” the center found — especially young people and ethnic minorities.
Trump’s push for federal election reforms has also run up against constitutional concerns.
Under the US Constitution, states retain broad control over the administration of elections.
It was unclear how Trump could legally force a national mandate on voter ID.
However the 79-year-old Republican has repeatedly overturned norms in the White House.
In his post Friday, he repeated his widely debunked claim that more election security is needed because of mass fraud.
For years, Trump has propagated the falsehood to justify his unprecedented — and ultimately unsuccessful — attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Polls show that Trump’s Republican Party faces a serious threat of losing its narrow control of Congress in the Midterms, particularly the lower chamber. If Democrats win, they have signaled they will block Trump’s agenda and could move to impeach him.
