<p class="wp-block-paragraph">War Secretary Pete Hegseth is mobilizing the Pentagon’s cybersecurity and intelligence resources to protect against foreign interference in the 2026 midterm elections.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“As we approach this election cycle, we must prove that we can and will protect the integrity of our democratic processes from any threat,” Hegseth wrote in a memo released Monday. “As President Trump has emphasized, ‘free and fair elections are the foundation of our republic’ and we must always work to protect our voting systems because ‘no country can be great without fair elections.'”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">President Donald Trump has made election security a central priority of his second administration, emphasizing threats to America’s election systems. He has pursued initiatives aimed at cracking down on illegal voting and safeguarding systems from foreign interference, including the SAVE America Act, which has faced criticism from Democrats as an attempt to restrict voting.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Hegseth’s letter represents the latest initiative from the Trump administration to secure election systems ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the memo, Hegseth stated that the Pentagon will “wield its capabilities to protect and uphold the reliability of America’s voting mechanisms against external manipulation and disruption from foreign actors.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">He called on the Defense Intelligence Enterprise, an intelligence network within the Pentagon, to investigate any foreign threats to U.S. elections. Additionally, he directed the U.S. Cyber Command to “counter potential cyber threats from foreign actors targeting our elections” in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">DHS designated election security as a critical infrastructure component in 2017, leading to ongoing efforts by the executive branch and Pentagon to defend U.S. elections from potential cyberattacks in subsequent federal election cycles, according to the Associated Press.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">During Trump’s first term, the National Security Agency highlighted its enhanced cybersecurity measures during the 2018 midterm elections, claiming that these efforts helped thwart foreign interference, a focus that continued under former President Joe Biden for the 2022 midterm elections.</p>