Trump Vows ‘Movement’ To Eliminate Mail-In Ballots Before 2026 Midterms

President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to eliminate mail-in voting, and has vowed to “lead a movement” to do so before the 2026 midterms.

“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.”

The announcement followed Trump’s meeting in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin last weekend, where Putin allegedly told Trump that the 2020 election “was rigged because you have mail-in voting,” according to Trump’s subsequent interview with Fox News‘ Sean Hannity.

Later in the day during a presser with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, Trump called mail-in ballots a “fraud.”

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump says he’s preparing an executive order to BAN mail-in ballots

“We’re going to END mail in voting. It’s a FRAUD! It’s time the Republicans get tough and STOP IT!”

“It’s the ONLY WAY Democrats can get elected!”

“They’re CORRUPT… and TEN TIMES more… pic.twitter.com/JdOpLdKgiH

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 18, 2025

Trump also indicated on Monday that he would sign an executive order assisting with the effort to roll back mail-in voting (which will be immediately overturned by a Democrat judge), and would target voting machines – instead favoring watermark paper for ballots. 

“Now they need that money in order to have the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump told Fox Business in a 2020 interview. “By the way, those are just two items, but if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.”

The use of mail-in ballots skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has remained high in subsequent elections. 

Trump also said that Democrats are “virtually Unelectable” without mail-in ballots, and that early voting had given Democrats an advantage.