US military has no plans to send troops to the polls in November, top general says — SkimNews
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- Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote to Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin confirming "no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections."
- Caine's letter also stated no plans to use military personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or election-related material, adding he has "neither received nor anticipate[s] receiving any unlawful order" concerning the November elections.
- Slotkin told the AP that Trump has been "laying the groundwork to claim the elections were stolen," citing his post-2020 contemplation of using the military to seize voting machines and his deployment of active-duty Marines to Los Angeles and the National Guard to cities against Democratic leaders' wishes.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not replied to Slotkin's letter requesting confirmation on no troop deployment; at an April hearing he dismissed a ballot-seizure question as a "gotcha hypothetical" but said "I've never been ordered to do anything illegal, and I won't."
- Federal law prohibits deployment of armed federal forces to election locations unless "necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States"; if any element of the military were involved, it would likely be the National Guard under state control.
- White House chief of staff Susie Wiles denied in a Vanity Fair interview last year that Trump would use the military to suppress voting in the midterms.
- In 2020, then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley responded to a similar Slotkin letter with: "I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military."
Why it matters: The top military officer's formal written assurance directly answers Democratic fears about election interference, but the Defense Secretary's silence on the identical request — paired with his April "gotcha hypothetical" dodge — leaves a credibility gap. Slotkin's citation of Trump's 2020 post-election behavior and ongoing National Guard deployments to Democratic-led cities keeps the underlying concern unresolved despite Caine's written commitment.
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