President Donald Trump said he will only accept the 2026 midterm election results if they are “honest.” He made this statement after days of questions about what he meant when he told Republicans to “take over” American elections.
According to The Independent, Trump told an interviewer that if he thinks the results are not honest, then “something else has to happen.” He did not explain what that “something else” means. When asked what makes an election honest, Trump talked about voter ID laws and the SAVE Act.
This proposed law would require voters to show proof of citizenship before voting. “If Democrats don’t want voter ID, if they don’t want voter ID, that means they want to cheat. We can’t allow cheating in elections,” Trump said.
Trump’s changing stance on nationalizing elections raises questions
Trump’s statements follow his earlier demand that Republicans should “take over” the voting process. When asked if he meant to “nationalize” elections, he said he never used that word. “I didn’t say ‘nationalize,'” he claimed. But just days before, he told another interviewer that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting” in at least 15 places. This claim contradicts what the Constitution says about federal power over elections.
Trump then named several major cities he says have corrupt voting processes: Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. These cities are all Democratic strongholds. Trump gave no evidence to support his claims of corruption in these areas.
This is not the first time Trump has questioned Georgia’s election results. During the 2020 election, he called the Georgia Secretary of State and asked him to “find” more than 11,000 votes. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to clarify Trump’s comments.
She said that when Trump talked about taking over elections, he was simply supporting the SAVE Act. She told reporters the law is “a huge, common-sense piece of legislation that Republicans have supported, that President Trump is committed to signing into law during his term.” Some Trump allies have gone further, with proposals to deploy ICE at polling locations during the midterms.
Despite this explanation, Trump has repeatedly said the federal government needs to get more involved. He said on Tuesday that if states “can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.” On Wednesday, he said again that if a state cannot run an election “honestly, and it can’t be done properly and timely, then something else has to happen.”
When asked if he would trust the results if Republicans lose Congress, Trump repeated his answer. “I will, if the elections are honest,” he said. He added that he believes there was cheating in his own recent election, but his victory was “too big to rig.”
Trump was also asked about serving a third term, which the Constitution does not allow. He did not rule it out. “Wouldn’t it be terrible if I gave you the answer that you’re looking for? It would make life so much less exciting,” he said. He ended by saying he does this for one reason: “Make America Great Again.”
Published: Feb 5, 2026 12:48 pm