Trump Takes Putin's Advice With Plan to Eliminate Mail-In Ballots
Trump takes the advice, despite Russia having mail-in ballots.
Donald Trump has vowed to launch a national campaign to eliminate mail-in voting in the United States, citing advice from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The move, announced after their recent meeting in Alaska, is the clearest sign yet of Trump’s willingness to import Kremlin talking points directly into U.S. election policy debates.
Putin reportedly told Trump that America’s elections were “rigged” in 2020 because of mail-in ballots. Trump, echoing those remarks, promised to use executive authority to ban both mail-in ballots and voting machines before the 2026 midterms. He framed the move as a way to “restore honesty” to American elections. Legal experts, however, point out that the Constitution gives the president no such power, elections are administered by states and overseen by Congress.
The irony is that Russia itself makes use of mail-in ballots. Despite Putin’s claims, Russia permits absentee voting, including special provisions for military personnel, citizens abroad, and voters unable to reach polling stations. In other words, the very system Trump is condemning at Putin’s urging is a normal part of Russia’s own election process.
Fact-checkers have also debunked Trump’s claim that the United States is the only country to use mail-in voting. At least 34 countries employ some form of it, ranging from European democracies to U.S. allies in Asia. Rather than being a bizarre outlier, mail-in voting is a common mechanism that expands democratic participation.
Trump’s promise is strategically aligned with the authoritarian script. By framing voting by mail as illegitimate, he is borrowing directly from Putin’s disinformation playbook, undermining faith in democratic systems while setting the stage for further restrictions on the franchise.
The fact that Putin has now become a cited authority in Trump’s campaign against voting rights is as revealing as it is alarming. America’s elections may be under attack, but not from mail-in ballots, from the corrosive influence of foreign autocrats and the politicians who embrace them.