DOD tells senator it has ‘no plan’ for troops at polls. But she has ‘no idea what Trump will do’

A top Department of Defense official says the military has “no plan” to deploy troops to election sites this fall — cold comfort after President Donald Trump and Cabinet secretaries spent months repeatedly suggesting that they could send troops or armed federal agents to the polls. 

The statement came after Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) asked U.S. military and federal law enforcement leaders for written assurances that neither soldiers nor federal agents would be ordered to disrupt the elections this year.

Assistant Secretary of Defense Mark Ditlevson replied Wednesday, writing that “the Department has no plan to deploy active-duty troops or Federalized National Guard to polling sites, nor does it have any plan to interfere with ballots, voting machines, or other election-related materials.”

“We operate in strict compliance with Federal law,” Ditlevson added, citing two statutes, “which expressly restrict the presence of military personnel at election sites and criminalize interference with election officials or materials.”

But, given the Trump administration’s track record of defying court orders, violating federal campaign laws, and embracing election denialism, a letter from an assistant secretary provides limited reassurance. 

In an appearance on MS NOW Wednesday night, Slotkin said the letter offered only some solace, noting that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth still had not responded to her requests.  

“I take that as a positive sign, I appreciate they are willing to put that on the record,” Slotkin said. “[I] still have no idea what Trump will do — I think that’s a very different question.”

Slotkin sent the requests, she said, to get out ahead of any illegal orders Trump might try to give, citing his attempts to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.

“In this well-worn authoritarian playbook, people at the last minute… they precipitate some sort of event that only they can solve — a security issue that only they can respond to — and they have to send in federal law enforcement and the uniformed military,” said Slotkin, a former CIA officer and Department of Defense official. “I want them to be very clear and on the record that they’re not going to do that.”

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine offered Slotkin similar assurances in August, writing that 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…. [or] to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material.”

Slotkin still has not received responses from Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and FBI Director Kash Patel.

Trump himself has pointedly and repeatedly refused to rule out sending troops to the polls, most recently responding to a Time reporter’s inquiry that “I don’t rule anything out or in.”

He made similar statements in August, May and January. Blanche, Mullin and Patel have all likewise suggested that federal agents could be sent to polling locations on Election Day. 

Those comments have led to three separate lawsuits seeking court orders to prevent armed deployments around voting sites.*

Facing dire public opinion figures just a month ahead of the midterm elections, the administration recently began running television ads glorifying Trump, using $20 million of taxpayer money. That appears to be a violation of the Hatch Act, which forbids federal officials from using their office for election-related activities. 

*The Elias Law Group (ELG) represents Democrats in one of the lawsuits aiming to block armed agents from the polls. ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.