California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom taunted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday, daring him to make good on his threat to jail state officials who defy the Trump administration’s proposed election security measures for the upcoming midterms.
President Donald Trump issued a lengthy national address on Thursday about supposed election security shortcomings, and used his primetime speech to further push for his controversial voter ID bill known as the SAVE Act. At a press conference Friday, Mullin threatened state officials with “prison time” if they refused to comply with the administration’s proposed election security measures.
The threat drew stunned reactions among critics, but Newsom fired back at Mullin directly, responding to a clip of the remarks on X.
“California has free, fair, and secure elections and we will fight for them,” Newsom wrote in an online post to his more than 3 million followers. “Try us.”
At the press conference, Mullin claimed that his agency had identified “250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada.” He also posted on X that his agency had put Newsom “on notice” regarding his claim.
However, according to election experts who spoke with The Guardian on Friday, Mullin’s claims came without any concrete evidence supporting them.
David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told The Guardian that the Trump administration was not “transparent about the methodology” it used to come to its 250,000 figure. Al Schmidt, the Republican secretary of state for Pennsylvania, pushed back on Mullin’s claim by insisting that “noncitizen voting is extremely rare across the country, including in Pennsylvania.”
Regarding Trump’s speech on Thursday, which in large part drew from DHS’ findings on supposed election security lapses, Newsom called the address a “25th Amendment moment.”
“I just watched the ramblings of a mad king and what else can I say – the only thing missing was tin foil,” Newsom wrote in a social media post on X. “Donald Trump is trying to rig our elections and we have to stop him.”
California has free, fair, and secure elections and we will fight for them. Try us. https://t.co/apFpjuGWn3 — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 17, 2026
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