United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order imposing stricter controls on federal elections, including a requirement for proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
The move comes as the Republican leader continues to claim that the electoral system remains rigged against him.
The order was immediately met with fierce opposition, with experts condemning it as an abuse of presidential power that could potentially disenfranchise millions of voters. Civil rights groups have already vowed to challenge the directive in court.
Trump, now serving his second term, has never acknowledged his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election and continues to push baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud—particularly in absentee voting, which has become increasingly common across the United States.
“Perhaps some people think I shouldn’t be complaining because we won in a landslide last November,” Trump said as he signed the executive order at the White House.
“But we’ve got to straighten out our election. This country is so sick because of the election, the fake elections,” he said. “And we’re going to straighten it out, one way or the other.”
Under the new rules, individuals registering to vote will be required to present proof of citizenship, such as a passport. States that fail to comply could face reductions in their federal election funding.
The directive also grants new powers to the attorney general, stating that they should “take all necessary action… against States that violate these provisions by including absentee or mail-in ballots received after Election Day in the final tabulation of votes.”
Several US states currently allow absentee ballots to be counted after Election Day, provided they were postmarked before polls closed.
Critics have described the executive order as an overreach of presidential power and a direct threat to voting rights.
Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, called the move “dangerous” and warned that it could “potentially disenfranchise millions of voters.”
On his Election Law blog, Hasen labelled Trump’s directive “an executive power grab,” noting that federal elections are primarily managed by individual states, with Congress responsible for setting election rules.
The Brennan Center, a nonprofit public policy institute, strongly opposed the order, writing on X that it “would block tens of millions of American citizens from voting. Presidents have no authority to do this.”
The American Civil Liberties Union also criticised the order, calling it “an extreme abuse of power” and indicating plans to challenge it in court. “We’ll see him in court,” the organisation stated.
Despite Trump’s insistence on tightening election laws, voting in US federal elections by non-citizens has been a criminal offence for decades. Existing laws already impose penalties, including fines, imprisonment, and deportation, for non-citizens caught voting.
