Judge halts Trump's attempt to defund election systems

10 January

U.S. President Donald Trump holds an umbrella as he speaks to members of the media while departing the White House en route to Florida in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump's effort to condition federal funding for state elections is illegal, according to a federal judge.

Politico reported late Friday that U.S. District Judge John H. Chun — an appointee of former President Joe Biden — struck down the Trump administration's attempt to deny federal money to states that didn't force voters to prove their U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. In a 75-page opinion, Judge Chun ruled that the administration's March 25 executive order demanding states implement the new systems violated the separation of powers.

"The Constitution assigns no authority to the president over federal election administration," Chun wrote.

In addition to Trump's citizenship demands, Judge Chun also took issue with the president's insistence that states stop counting ballots after Election Day, which would invalidate any mailed ballots that arrive after the first Tuesday of November even if they were postmarked prior to Election Day. Trump had also demanded the Election Assistance Commission to have a "paper record" of all ballots counted.

Judge Chun marks the third federal judge who has struck down Trump's attempts to condition federal election funding. In April of 2025, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (an appointee of former President Barack Obama in Washington D.C.) blocked the executive order's citizenship requirements. U.S. District Judge Denise Casper (another Obama appointee based in Massachusetts) in June halted the administration's attempts to invalidate mailed ballots arriving after Election Day.

The administration has appealed both of the prior rulings, and those appeals are pending. He maintains that the 2020 election – which he lost to Biden after mail-in ballots eroded his narrow edge in swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — was conducted fraudulently, despite his own attorney general at the time saying there was no evidence of widespread fraud.

Trump repeated his debunked claims of voter fraud in 2020 in a Friday press conference, falsely stating that he won Minnesota in all three of his campaigns for the presidency. Democrats Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris all carried the Gopher State in 2016, 2020 and 2024, respectively.

Click here to read Politico's report in full.

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