3 min readUpdated: Feb 27, 2026 11:20 AM IST
Allies of US President Donald Trump, who claim to be in coordination with the White House, are reportedly circulating a 17-page executive order that will allow the president to declare a national emergency over claims of Chinese interference in the 2020 election.
The “emergency” will allow Trump to ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, a cause he has repeatedly previewed. It will also make Voted ID mandatory.
The White House declined to elaborate on Trump’s plans.
“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order, reported The Washington Post.
Ticktin said he’s had “certain coordination” with White House officials but declined to specify, citing safety concerns.
“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin added. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”
Ticktin was part of Trump’s legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
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He also represented Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk imprisoned on state charges arising from breaking into voting equipment, whom Trump said he pardoned in December.
China behind 2020 loss?
The draft order claims that China interfered in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
A declassified intelligence review released later concluded that China considered efforts to influence the election but did not go through with them.
According to the post, a White House official said the administration is regularly reaching out to advocates outside who want to share their policy ideas with the president.
Trump had also taken to Truth Social on February 13, saying, “I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future.”
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“I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order,” he added.
The ‘Save America Act’
Trump has been pressuring Republicans to pass the “Save America Act,” legislation that would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and identification to cast ballots. The bill has passed the House but faces obstacles in the Senate, where Republican leaders have rejected Trump’s demand to change the chamber’s rules to advance the measure.
“President Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, reported the Post.
“The President has urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act and other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting,” he added.
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Trump said that if the bill fails, he will pass the act unilaterally to impose the changes for the midterms.
(With inputs from The Washington Post)
