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By Dan Gooding and Gabe Whisnant
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The Trump administration is discussing potential executive orders related to voting ahead of the midterm elections, officials familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The talks come as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard has spent months reexamining the results of the 2020 election that President Donald Trump lost, a priority for the White House, officials told the outlet.
That effort took Gabbard to Georgia this week, where FBI agents searched a county election office as part of a federal investigation tied to the 2020 vote. Democrats and election experts have criticized the initiative, noting that multiple reviews have found no evidence of widespread fraud in the presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
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A spokesperson for DNI told Newsweek, in part, "Director Gabbard recognizes that election security is essential for the integrity of our republic and our nation’s security."
Why It Matters
Trump has long claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him, leading to investigations by the Biden administration into his alleged attempts to overthrow the results, which were later dropped. Over five years on from the hotly contested election, the president is still pushing the idea that he won, despite having returned to the White House in 2025.
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What To Know
Gabbard has spent months studying information on voting machines, data from swing states, and theories promoted by Trump around the 2020 election being stolen from him, the Journal reported. The DNI has regularly briefed the president and chief of staff Susie Wiles about the inquiry and consulted with other intelligence experts.
So far, no new evidence has been presented to the public to back the idea that Trump beat former President Biden in 2020, but Gabbard is preparing a report, the outlet said.
One potential move in the near future could be executive orders related to voting ahead of the midterms in November, although details on what those orders could include were unclear. Trump has repeatedly called for an end to mail-in ballots and cast doubt on electronic voting machines, but has not gone so far as to end these practices.
Earlier this week, Gabbard was present alongside FBI agents as they executed a search warrant at Fulton County's main elections office. The county was one of the main areas where Trump contested the 2020 election results, leading to charges against him at the state and federal levels.
The DNI has also been looking into a separate effort aimed at promoting allegations that former President Barack Obama was involved in manufacturing a false conspiracy theory of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The conspiracy, allegedly, was that the Obama administration wanted to undermine the first Trump White House.
What People Are Saying
A DNI spokesperson told Newsweek: "Director Gabbard recognizes that election security is essential for the integrity of our republic and our nation’s security. As DNI, she has a vital role in identifying vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure and protecting against exploitation. We know through intelligence and public reporting that electronic voting systems have been and are vulnerable to exploitation. President Trump’s directive to secure our elections was clear, and DNI Gabbard has and will continue to take actions within her authorities, alongside our interagency partners, to support ensuring the integrity of our elections."
Democratic Virginia Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement Thursday: “There are only two explanations for why the Director of National Intelligence would show up at a federal raid tied to Donald Trump’s obsession with losing the 2020 election. Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus – in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and currently informed’ of relevant national security concerns – or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.
"Either is a serious breach of trust that further underscores why she is totally unqualified to hold a position that demands sound judgment, apolitical independence, and a singular focus on keeping Americans safe.”
Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts, speaking Thursday: “This week’s actions show that Fulton County is still very much a target, and I’m told that I’m a target. I’m a big boy, and while we’ve grown accustomed to name-calling and rhetoric, we will not give one inch to those who seek to take control of our elections."
What Happens Next
The full scale of the investigation into the 2020 and 2016 elections is yet to be revealed.
Update 1/29/26, 5:01 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 1/30/26, 10:32 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from a spokesperson for the DNI.
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