- Hegseth’s order does not require military personnel to go to the polls, but President Trump has refused to rule out that possibility, increasing concerns among Democrats and critics of the administration.
Zoom: In a previously unpublished memo authorized by Hegseth on September 22, the secretary pledged to fight foreign interference and defend democratic freedoms. The memo has three related directives:
- Prioritizing his department’s “intelligence and cybersecurity capabilities to ensure foreign actors do not meddle in our democratic systems” under the umbrella of U.S. Cyber Command and combat support agency directors.
- Use the Defense Intelligence Enterprise to collect and produce information “on foreign threats to our elections, consistent with law, regulation, and executive direction.”
- Countering “potential cyber threats from foreign actors targeting our elections” through joint operations between US Cyber Command and the Department of Homeland Security.
Catch up quickly: The directive builds on Trump’s 2025 executive order titled “Preserve and Protect the Integrity of America’s Elections” and was also written in response to his July speech accusing China of interfering in the 2020 election, which China denied.
- This memo from Hegseth follows a similar effort ahead of the 2022 midterm elections under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, who ordered U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency to “disrupt, deter, and degrade the ability of foreign adversaries to interfere and influence how American citizens vote and how those votes are counted.”
Zoom out: The federal government has taken an increased role in detecting election threats from foreign governments since 2017, when elections were designated critical infrastructure by DHS.
- Trump’s pick to lead the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, Lt. Gen. Joshua M. Rudd, told senators during his confirmation hearing that such work was “fundamental” and would continue to “safeguard” American democracy.
- But budget cuts imposed by the Trump administration have reduced those efforts as the midterm elections approach. He proposed cutting the election security budget for the main component responsible for DHS, CISA, and delaying staffing in other key positions.
- In the meantime, significant resources have been devoted to detecting instances of voter fraud in previous elections and on voter rolls, with some DHS staff assigned to this task.
Flashback: After Trump’s 2020 defeat, Trump allies shared a memo asking the president to use “raw, unprocessed signal data” from the DOD and NSA to try to investigate election fraud, according to the Washington Post.
- Officials named in the memo and asked to follow up on it denied seeing him at the time.
- Trump then asked whether it was possible to order the National Guard to seize voting machines, and earlier this year he regretted to the New York Times that he had not done so.
Six years later, Trump has previously used federal officials to search for evidence of election fraud.
- In January, the FBI seized voting machines used in the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, a heavily Democratic-leaning county in a state it lost that year.
- The Justice Department has formally asked 30 state election offices to preserve records related to the 2024 election as part of ongoing litigation seeking to review election materials.
- This latest memo from Hegseth does not order the National Guard or any other military personnel to seize voting machines.
Between the lines: Cyber capabilities, AI and network defense are now core missions of the Department of Defense. That wasn’t the case in 2024, when technology was newer and the department needed specialized teams for missions such as election security, officials said.
- “This is what CYBERCOM does every day,” one official said. “Defending the country against foreign cyber actors is a long-term mission.”
- U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA “regularly thwart the actions of malicious foreign cyber actors, including those who intend to interfere with our democratic process,” Rudd said.
What they say: Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said federal, state and local officials were working “closely” with U.S. Cyber Command and defense intelligence teams to stop foreign interference and attacks.
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