‘If they’re honest’: Trump casts final suspicion on US midterm elections | News 2026 US midterm elections

Trump’s comments come as his administration takes legal action against Democratic-led U.S. states over election integrity.

US President Donald Trump said he would respect the results of next week’s midterm elections if they were “honest”, as his administration broadened its legal battle to assert power over state officials who are organizing the closely watched November 3 vote.

“I will if this election is honest,” Trump told reporters Tuesday when asked if he would respect the result even if his Republican Party lost control of the U.S. Congress.

Trump’s remarks come a day after his Department of Justice (DOJ) threatened the northwestern state of Washington with legal action if it does not remove from its voter rolls about 400 people who it says are not U.S. citizens.

“The timing of this request – a week before the general election – is undoubtedly intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a statement Monday, responding to the request received in a letter that gave the state until noon Wednesday local time to respond, or deal with what the DOJ called “emergency relief.”

Hobbs’ office said it was reviewing the list of 400 suspected noncitizens but had already found that some of them were based on outdated information. For example, the DOJ cited a 1994 filing to claim that a person was a non-citizen on its list, Hobbs said.

“Elections in Washington are secure. Reports of voter fraud, including non-citizen voting, are incredibly rare, and every voter attests to their eligibility by signing the declaration on their ballot return envelope each election,” Hobbs said in the release.

Last month, Washington state successfully argued in a lawsuit that it was not required to turn over its entire voter rolls to the DOJ. It is among dozens of Democratic-led states that have met the Trump administration’s request and won court support.

Despite setbacks in court, Trump’s Justice Department has continued to attempt to cast suspicion on the outcome of the Nov. 3 election, including attempting to claim that large numbers of noncitizens vote in Democratic-led states, a claim that has been repeatedly rejected by bipartisan voting rights groups.

Last week, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the state of Alaska, saying it would seek to block certification of its Senate election if incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan did not win. The DOJ said that because the state allowed another candidate, also named Dan Sullivan, to appear on the ballot, local officials failed in their responsibility to conduct the election fairly. On the ballot, Sen. Dan Sullivan appears with information indicating he is the incumbent.

The Senate race is one of several elections across the country that could go the way of the Democratic Party and see Trump’s Republicans lose control of the legislature. On Friday, Trump said he had personally asked the DOJ to take legal action against Alaska.

Earlier this month, California said it received a letter from the DOJ saying the state needed to review a list of about 20,000 noncitizen voters. California officials said a large percentage of people on the list were actually people who appeared to be born in the United States, which would automatically make them eligible voters.

The DOJ also announced plans to deploy a record number of election observers across the country on November 3 to monitor any irregularities, over the objection of local officials in several Democratic-led states, including New Jersey and California. Historically, the DOJ has sent observers to monitor problems in places with a history of civil rights violations and obstacles that would prevent minorities or disenfranchised groups from voting on Election Day.