President Trump’s top military adviser has told a Democratic senator that there are “no plans” for the armed forces to deploy troops to polling stations for the midterm elections.
The adviser, Gen. Dan Caine, appeared to renounce the possibility that the military would interfere with the vote in letter on Friday to Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. In the letter, which was obtained by news organizations including The New York Times, General Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explicitly ruled out troops seizing “ballots, voting machines or other election-related material.”
“I have neither received not anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections,” General Caine wrote.
General Caine’s statement comes as Mr. Trump continues to repeat false claims of widespread voter fraud and of his political opponents’ cheating in elections. He has used a variety of procedural and legislative levers to restrict mail-in voting, a particular target of his false claims, ahead of the midterms.
Mr. Trump has also for years repeated the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and has demanded that his administration continue to pursue baseless claims of fraud in that vote. The F.B.I. seized hundreds of boxes of 2020 election records in Fulton County, Ga., in one such investigation this year.
In January, Mr. Trump told New York Times reporters that, in hindsight, he “should have” ordered the National Guard to seize ballot boxes in 2020 as part of his effort to overturn his defeat to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
When asked if using the National Guard to seize ballots was a viable option, Mr. Trump said: “I don’t know that they are sophisticated enough. You know, they’re good warriors. I’m not sure that they’re sophisticated enough in the ways of crooked Democrats and the way they cheat, to figure that out.”
That General Caine made a statement at all rejecting military intervention in the 2026 election was noteworthy. Mr. Trump is fond of the general, branding him “Razin’ Caine” at political rallies. But the president’s mercurial nature makes it difficult for administration officials and military alike to speak publicly in a way that challenges his worldview.
Some of the language in General Caine’s letter contradicted Mr. Trump’s efforts to reshape elections. For example, the general explained that “election administration and security remain the fundamental responsibility of state and local officials.”
Mr. Trump has made concerted efforts to exert unprecedented levels of federal oversight on the nation’s elections. Voting by mail would become much more difficult, if not impossible, for tens of millions of Americans if the Postal Service is allowed to put into place the restrictive rules governing mail voting that Mr. Trump has demanded.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
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