Homeland Security Secretary Markwayn Mullin doubled down on threats President Donald Trump has made against states that don’t comply with demands for election reform.
Marin’s latest speech on Friday largely reiterated what President Trump had said the night before: that his administration would pursue a hard-line policy of redistricting U.S. elections.
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Marin pledged to pursue a “maximum pressure” campaign to ensure compliance, borrowing language from President Trump’s foreign policy platform.
He also hinted at the implications for those accused of misleading Americans about the 2020 election, which Trump falsely claimed he won.
“This is not about rehashing the 2020 election. This is just about exposing what happened and making sure it never happens again,” Marin said.
He added that the department is considering intelligence community members and members of former President Joe Biden’s administration as possible targets.
“Everyone who intentionally misleads the American people, abuses their power and authority, and chooses not to continue their work will be held accountable,” Mullin explained.
Increased pressure on the state
But while President Trump repeatedly claimed a “deep state” cover-up about election vulnerabilities in a prime-time address Thursday, declassified documents released by the White House did not support his full claims.
Like Trump before him, Marin focused his administration’s immediate efforts on four states: California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada.
All four states are considered important swing states or left-wing strongholds. These are also fairly populous states, blessed with above-average votes in the Electoral College, the system that decides U.S. presidential elections.
Marin said there are 250,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls in these four states, but no statistical evidence was provided.
Marin also reiterated President Trump’s claim that the government has rounded up nearly 278,000 foreigners who are registered to vote.
It’s unclear how the Trump administration arrived at this number, and experts caution that just because someone registers doesn’t mean they actually voted successfully.
Funds held
States screen voters for citizenship and other qualifications, and it is extremely rare for non-citizens to vote.
For example, the Brennan Center for Justice’s analysis looked at 42 jurisdictions from the 2016 election, when Trump made his first bid for public office. It found that non-referendum votes accounted for 0.0001 percent of the ballots.
Trump has a long history of refusing to vote. Even in 2016, Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote — a fact he tried to explain away by falsely claiming that millions of people “voted illegally.”
Election experts widely reject claims that non-referendum votes are a threat to the outcome of U.S. elections.
Still, Marin threatened to withhold federal funds from states that don’t comply with President Trump’s demands on election security.
“We’re going to mandate enhanced security, which means if these states want subsidies and reimbursement for the costs of labor and conducting federal elections, they’re going to have to introduce security issues,” Mullin said.
“It’s just a security issue. We’re not going to go into anything else, but we’re saying the machines have to be secured and the voter registration lists have to be wiped.”
Raising doubts about electronic voting
President Trump has long raised unfounded concerns about the security of electronic voting and advocated a return to paper ballots instead. He also wants to limit mail-in voting, which he himself uses to vote.
The administration has also repeatedly pressured states to turn over their voter rolls to the federal government. But several federal courts have blocked President Trump’s efforts to build a federal voter database.
Additionally, the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, a tool the Trump administration plans to use to consolidate voter information, has been criticized for falsely reporting foreign-born citizens as non-citizens.
Still, the Trump administration sent a letter to election officials across the country earlier this month threatening to prosecute any noncitizen voters found in their states.
Critics have accused Trump of trying to nationalize election administration, even though the U.S. Constitution gives only states the power to organize elections.
Already, some state leaders have responded to Marin’s comments by hinting at further legal action.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday linked to Mullin’s video and wrote on his social media feed: “California deserves free, fair and secure elections and we will fight for them.” “Try us.”
Collisions with TV networks
Meanwhile, Marin also took aim at the major television networks that did not carry President Trump’s prime-time speech live on Thursday.
The White House had requested broadcast time for the speech, but its content was shrouded in mystery in advance.
But critics urged the networks not to give Trump a platform to make baseless election claims that could undermine confidence in the upcoming 2026 midterm vote.
In the end, companies such as ABC, NBC, and CNN did not air the full 30-minute speech on their main channels, while others such as Fox News did. However, there was a caveat.
Trump used his prime-time slot to criticize channels for opting out.
“They and members of the media are part of a conspiracy. For whatever reason, they want to continue this fraud. They want to continue it,” Trump said.
“We can’t have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean revocation of our license.”
Mullins echoed that assessment when asked about President Trump’s threat, calling the network “shameful” and suggesting it was part of a broader cover-up.
“What are they trying to hide? Why don’t they want the American people to know? Why call themselves a news organization when they’re not actually trying to get the news out?” Mullins asked.
Thursday’s speech was not the first time the Trump administration has threatened to strip broadcast licenses from channels that disagree with it. For example, he did so last September amid his feud with late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
In light of President Trump’s recent comments, Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), rejected the threat as unconstitutional on social media.
“The FCC does not have the authority to punish stations that refuse to air overtly political speech. This is a blatant attempt to bully a station, and the FCC should not get involved,” Gomez wrote.
“It’s ridiculous to ask a station to lose its license just because it made the same editorial decisions it has made under presidents of both parties, especially at a time when speech is still available online for anyone who wants to see it.”
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides broad protections for free speech and the press.
