President Trump announced that he will address the nation on Thursday, July 16 on the topic of election integrity.
Many expect Trump to air his grievances about losing the 2020 presidential election. However, there may be more than his typical rants. The conservative Washington Reporter claims that Trump will announce that Georgia’s two U.S. Senators are illegitimate because of election fraud. This tidbit suggests Trump will go further to present evidence — however tenuous and half-baked — and use this as a basis to make substantive policy declarations.
I enjoy joking about conspiracy theories, but there are serious indications that this will happen. The Trump administration has made moves in advance of his speech that could signal what he will do — that at the least he will order the decertification of Dominion voting machines.
The trail starts in May 2025 when Tulsi Gabbard’s ODNI seized Puerto Rico’s voting machines to investigate if Venezuela had interfered in the island’s elections.
On January 28, 2026 Gabbard’s ODNI seized election materials from Fulton County, Georgia under a federal warrant. Trump has long been focused on Georgia, exemplified in his infamous perfect call where he entreated Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.”
Never mind that Fulton had perhaps the most closely examined election in history, with three separate counts of the vote finding no discrepancies.
What do Puerto Rico and Georgia have in common? Both use Dominion voting equipment. Puerto Rico’s used Dominion ImageCast Precinct scanners and Georgia uses the Dominion ICX touchscreen ballot-marking device, Dominion ICP optical scanners, and Dominion election-management software.
Given Gabbard’s interest in Dominion and the many debunked conspiracy theories surrounding Dominion it appears likely that Trump will make a claim that Dominion voting equipment was hacked. Perhaps Trump will present corroborating testimony from imprisoned former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in exchange for leniency.
Aside from satisfying Trump’s need to never be wrong, what could he do next?
Last week Trump fired the three remaining members of the United States Election Assistance Commission. The EAC has only two powers regarding administering elections, as this is primarily a state and local responsibility.
First, the EAC produces the federal voter registration form, but a vote by the commissioners is needed to change it, to say, add documentary proof of citizenship to it. Trump ordering a change to the federal voter registration form will fail in court.
Second, the EAC, working with the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), certifies voting machines. States are not obligated to follow the EAC/NIST certification. Many voluntarily follow it. Eleven states require EAC certification by law including, you guessed it, Georgia.
In 2010, the EAC commissioners gave the EAC director the authority to certify or decertify voting machines. The EAC does not require any commissioners to vote.
It is thus possible Trump will order EAC Executive Director Brianna Schletz to decertify Dominion (the company has been renamed Liberty Vote) voting machines. If she refuses, Trump will fire her and replace her with someone who will.
Depending on how broad the hypothetical decertification order is, this act could produce headaches for all eleven states. Ballotpedia has a tracker of voting equipment vendors by state and locality, and all eleven states could be exposed.
Would Trump go further and declare a national emergency and federalize elections? I don’t know. The constitution is clear the president does not have this authority, so I would expect he would lose at the U,S, Supreme Court. But anything goes with Trump.
The scenario where the EAC Executive Director decertifies Dominion (aka Liberty Vote) voting machines, however, is real possibility.