War Secretary Pete Hegseth is mobilizing the Pentagon’s cybersecurity and intelligence resources to protect against foreign interference in the 2026 midterm elections.
“As we approach this election cycle, we must prove that we can and will protect the integrity of our democratic processes from any threat,” Hegseth wrote in a memo released Monday. “As President Trump has emphasized, ‘free and fair elections are the foundation of our republic’ and we must always work to protect our voting systems because ‘no country can be great without fair elections.'”
President Donald Trump, who has for years claimed threats to America’s election systems, has made election security a central priority of his second administration. He’s attempted to crack down on illegal voting in the United States and safeguard systems from foreign interference through policy initiatives such as his hailed SAVE America Act, which Democrats have railed against as efforts to restrict voting.
Hegseth’s letter comes as the latest Trump administration initiative to secure election systems ahead of the crucial midterm elections.
Hegseth said in the memo that the Pentagon will “wield its capabilities to protect and uphold the reliability of America’s voting mechanisms against external manipulation and disruption from foreign actors.”
He called on the Defense Intelligence Enterprise, an intelligence network within the Pentagon, to look into any foreign threats to U.S. elections. He also directed the U.S. Cyber Command to “counter potential cyber threats from foreign actors targeting our elections” in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security.
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DHS designated election security a critical infrastructure component in 2017, with the executive branch and Pentagon making concerted efforts to defend U.S. elections from possible cyberattacks in each subsequent federal election cycle, according to the Associated Press.
The National Security Agency during Trump’s first term touted its amped-up cybersecurity measures in the 2018 midterm elections and claimed its cybersecurity efforts helped thwart foreign interference, an effort that continued under former President Joe Biden for the 2022 midterm elections.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
