President Donald Trump is willing to hold back disaster aid to blackmail states into complying with changes to election law that congressional Republicans have not been willing to pass.
The Department of Homeland Security said it is considering whether to use grant funding allocated to states — and the threat of withholding it — to advance what it calls "core national security priorities," including changes to election security and infrastructure, reported NOTUS.
The administration wants states to hand count ballots and use an overhauled federal database to flag potential noncitizen voters, both demands President Donald Trump has pushed in recent weeks, and the president is reportedly willing to pull up to 20 percent of DHS grant funding — money typically used for infrastructure, terrorism prevention and disaster preparedness — from states that refuse to comply.
A DHS spokesperson said no funding changes have been finalized, but added that "any recipient of federal funding should expect accountability for how taxpayer dollars are spent."
The move follows a long-running effort by Trump, who has repeatedly claimed without evidence that noncitizens are voting in large numbers, to expand federal control over elections, but those moves have hit repeated legal roadblocks. A federal judge this week blocked the administration's overhaul of a voter-verification database, the Justice Department has had nine election-related lawsuits dismissed, and a separate court blocked a March attempt to require voters to show passports at the polls.
In Congress, the SAVE America Act — a voter-ID bill Trump has championed — has stalled in the Senate after Republican holdouts, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), withheld support. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) acknowledged Tuesday that the votes simply aren't there.
With legislative options exhausted, Trump appears to be turning to executive leverage instead, raising the stakes for states ahead of the midterms — a cycle Democrats see as a chance to retake the House.
Trump has warned that a Democratic-controlled House could move to impeach him, a possibility some Democrats say they're already considering.
“He’s done a million impeachable things, so I don’t want to be too coy about this," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), who many consider a lock for the Democratic whip position if Republicans lose their majority.