WATCH: Trump says he’s not considering declaring a national emergency to seize control of elections
February 27, 2026
113,366
283
0.25%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Amna Nawaz Episodes Around February 27, 2026
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
0:53Now PlayingWATCH: Trump says he’s not considering declaring a national emergency to seize control of elections
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelA draft executive order circulated by President Donald Trump's allies this week would give him extraordinary power over the 2026 midterm elections.
But when asked about the 17-page proposal, first reported by the Washington Post, the president said he wasn't considering it.
"Who told you that," the president said in a response to a question from PBS News about whether he was considering declaring a national emergency around the midterms, the basis for the plan laid out in the document.
The U.S. Constitution empowers the states to determine “the times, places, and manner” of holding elections, while Congress has a limited oversight role in regulating how states run federal elections.
The proposal, a version of which was reviewed in full by PBS News, claims to address election integrity issues caused by foreign interference. By declaring a national emergency, the document hypothesizes that the president could take control over some voting mechanisms in the country, including requiring hand-counting of ballots and voter identification at the polls.
The draft executive order would expand federal control over elections and almost immediately be challenged in court. Since the draft was made public, experts said such a proposal would be unconstitutional.
Sign up for Here's The Deal with Lisa Desjardins
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters
PBS News podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app
Find more from PBS News at
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.