As Trump warns of election threats, independent agencies have been cut
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has cut or hobbled the independent federal agencies that would normally handle election security issues, such as those the president claimed the United States is experiencing.
In his White House address on July 16, Trump asserted that U.S. elections are vulnerable to foreign interference and claimed China meddled in the 2020 election. He said Americans have for years been “blatantly lied to” by the government about the security of election infrastructure, including voting machines and ballot-counting systems – claims that could not immediately be verified.
Some of the agencies that pushed back on Trump’s baseless 2020 election fraud claims have seen staff steadily reduced since 2025, diminishing their ability to be a trusted voice for election officials and American voters, said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a nonpartisan think tank.
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat, said he expects state and local election officials to quickly respond with specifics.
“Elections are important,” he said, “and when people talk about them in inaccurate ways, that is dangerous.”
