One of the nation’s leading military officials said the Trump administration is not deploying soldiers to monitor midterm elections in November.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, the country’s highest-ranking military officer, responded to Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s (D-MI) request that he outline the administration’s stance on deploying military members to polling sites. Caine said such a plan is not in the works, saying he had “neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order,” in a letter to the Michigan Democrat.
“Election administration and security remain the fundamental responsibility of state and local officials. The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections. Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material,” he wrote.
“I have neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections,” Caine added in the letter. “I stand ready to discuss this matter further with you or with other Senators.”
Caine’s letter is the latest attempt from administration officials to tamp down concerns from Democrats who have suggested they’re afraid the White House will send in troops or Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to monitor the elections.
The Department of Homeland Security told the Washington Examiner in February that ICE is not planning operations at polling locations. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said last year it is “categorically false, will not happen, it’s just wrongheaded,” to think President Donald Trump could use the military to suppress or prevent voting during the midterm elections.
Some of the debate started when Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to Trump during his first term before the president fired him, urged the White House to send ICE to the polls. More rumors started when Trump made vague comments in February about “nationalizing” elections, citing concerns that Democrats could be rigging election systems in battleground areas. The president later said he didn’t use the term “nationalize,” saying, “I said there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt.”
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” Trump told former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. “We should take over the voting … in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes.”
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Talk about election integrity has become a key push of Trump’s second term, after he claimed the 2020 election was rigged against him in favor of Joe Biden. Trump has fought this year to pass major election integrity legislation that would require voters to show photo ID when they turn in ballots, through the SAVE America Act.
In July, Trump gave a high-profile speech that multiple major networks declined to cover, outlining data from intelligence agencies he said indicated U.S. election systems and voting machines are vulnerable to foreign interference, including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Starting during the 2020 election cycle, China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in the illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files, Trump said, citing the CIA’s findings.