Trump ties Iran strikes to claims that Tehran interfered in U.S. elections
President Donald Trump suggested Saturday that his military strike against Iran may have been driven in part by claims that the country interfered in the last two U.S. presidential elections.
In response, democracy advocates warned that a dangerous and unconstitutional plan is coming into view, in which Trump uses an Iranian war to claim a national emergency that allows him to take control of the midterm elections.
Get updates straight to your inbox — for free
Join 350,000 readers who rely on our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest in voting, elections and democracy.
On Truth Social, Trump linked to an article by a far-right news site, and also posted the text of the article’s headline:
“Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States.”
The article claims that “Iranian intelligence sought to undermine Trump’s reelection bid in 2020 through a variety of election influence efforts.”
Early Saturday, the U.S. and Israel launched a series of joint attacks on various targets in Iran. The country’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, was killed in the attacks, Iranian state media confirmed.
“Sadly, this is about the next election,” Ian Bassin, the executive director of Protect Democracy and a leading democracy advocate, wrote on BlueSky in response to Trump’s post. “He’s laying the groundwork to declare his election ’emergency’ to change rules and argue to courts they can’t question his national security judgment in war time. And if the Court does, he’s preparing to say that’s beyond their constitutional powers.”
The Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias (disclosure: Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket) struck a similar note.
“The next Big Lie is taking shape right in front of us,” Elias wrote on BlueSky. “Donald Trump will try to use this to assert illegal and unconstitutional powers over the 2026 elections.”
The White House is reportedly coordinating with anti-voting activists on a draft executive order that declares a national emergency and gives Trump control over elections — which would be unconstitutional.
Democracy Docket on Friday published an early version of the order, which, among other steps, bans no-excuse mail voting and voting machines.