ProPublica published a major investigation on April 13, 2026, documenting how Trump has replaced the federal officials who protected the 2020 election with appointees from or connected to the election denial movement.
The investigation found that at least 75 people across several agencies were involved in safeguarding the 2020 results. Nearly all are now gone, having resigned, been fired or been reassigned, particularly in the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. They include the CISA cybersecurity specialists who established that the Antrim County, Michigan, voting-machine allegations were false and reported their findings to Attorney General William Barr. Among Trump's first actions on returning to office, ProPublica found, was eviscerating CISA; CBS News has reported that nearly 1,000 CISA personnel, nearly a third of the agency's workforce, had left or been removed from active service by mid-2025.
They have been replaced by roughly two dozen people Trump has installed in positions that could affect elections. Ten of them actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote, and the rest are associates of such people. In some cases, officials have been hired from activist groups that are pillars of the election denial movement. Experts warn this shows the movement has merged with the federal government.
The investigation revealed previously undisclosed aspects of the 2020 effort, including how CISA experts briefed Barr on Antrim County before he told Trump the allegations were false; Barr later offered his resignation, which Trump accepted. ProPublica concluded that if faced with the same tests today, the guardrails and people that held the line in 2020 “would largely be missing,” though a few guardrails have endured: judges have blocked key parts of a March 2025 executive order on federal control of voting, and some Republican state officials have fought Justice Department lawsuits demanding state voter rolls.
Trump has stepped up efforts to “nationalize” the 2026 elections, saying Republicans need “to take over” the midterms. On former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino's podcast in February, Trump said, “The Republicans should say, 'We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least — many, 15 places.' The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” NBC News reported. With his approval rating nearing record lows, Democrats who monitored his attempts to block his 2020 loss have begun to question whether he will allow a “blue wave,” particularly if it flips control of a House that impeached him twice.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry previously said ProPublica found that “every guardrail that held in 2020 has been removed.” ProPublica wrote that those guardrails and people “would largely be missing” today and that a few guardrails have endured, and the entry now says so. It also said the CISA specialists were “all gone” (ProPublica says nearly all of the 75 people are gone), described Trump's approval as at record lows (ProPublica says nearing record lows), and called the two dozen appointees “election deniers” in the title, though ProPublica says ten worked to reverse the 2020 vote and the rest are their associates.