Donald Trump has spread conspiracy theories about voting machines being hacked since his 2016 campaign. Now, two former officials with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) say that shortly after he retook office in 2025, the agency was ordered to secretly obtain and hack one.
As far as these officials are aware, no one acted on the plan. Instead, the agency argued that Elon Musk’s Doge staff cuts had removed everyone capable of carrying out the order, according to a ProPublica investigation.
Who Wanted To Hack A Voting Machine, And Why?
The exact origin of the order to acquire and hack a voting machine isn’t clear. Anonymous former officials say it came from “political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security.”
When Trump returned to the White House, he quickly began filling positions with loyalists, so many appointments went to DHS during that time frame, starting with Kristi Noem as DHS Secretary. No one has publicly revealed which official gave this order, and it’s unclear whether the official initiated it or relayed it from a higher office.
No one has said why the Trump Administration, or its allies, would ask for this to be carried out. Trump did release an Election Integrity statement in March, which asserted that there was evidence foreign nations might be hacking U.S. voting machines, and vaguely touting “urgent action to ensure that our own systems can never be hacked or compromised.” Testing the hackability of machines to determine their vulnerabilities to outside forces is the most legitimate explanation for the order.
However, there’s growing concern that the plan could serve less legitimate purposes, such as discrediting a future election. It also calls to mind prior election interference cases, including Tina Peters, who was convicted for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines in Colorado, and the massive case in Georgia, which also involved Trump allies illegally accessing voting machines.
Was The Plan To Hack A Voting Machine Carried Out?
The unnamed appointees were apparently persistent, however. The former employees say CISA repeatedly refused, explaining that it couldn’t be done because Elon Musk’s Doge task force had fired everyone at CISA who could have carried it out, and that the appointees eventually stopped pushing.
In fact, according to TechCrunch, the CISA cuts started with election security staff, who were put on leave in January, followed by multiple rounds of firings that totaled well over 200 employees in those early weeks.
The implication is that Trump’s allies forestalled the effort, at least through CISA.
However, Trump allies have previously discussed accessing voting machines independently. Mike Lindell, for instance, claimed he possessed multiple voting machines in 2021, although at his much-touted Cyber Symposium, Salon reports that he showed the public a Canon document scanner. Trump also boasted in 2025 that Elon Musk had great knowledge of “those vote-counting computers,” then followed up with a boast about his win, which has raised questions about what he credits Musk with doing in Pennsylvania.
What Does This Mean For Voters?
Voters should not let this information keep them from the polls. The top priority for every American eligible to vote is still to show up and vote.
However, if any elected official (or also-ran) alleges election interference in the future, voters should remember to look at the whole picture. It’s not merely a question of whether interference is possible. Instead, voters should consider the specific claims made, any evidence offered, the feasibility of the claimed action, and the individual’s election history and motivations.
Election security is a high priority, and our elections have historically been secure, but changes to the structure and voting-rights protections are good reasons to pay close attention to election integrity.
