California Republicans this weekend will vote to endorse their pick for California governor in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The vote, this Sunday in San Diego at the California GOP’s annual convention, comes a week after President Donald Trump took sides between the two major Republican candidates in the race, backing conservative commentator and former Fox News Channel host Steve Hilton over Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Trump, whose endorsements are extremely influential in GOP primaries, argued in his endorsement statement that California had “gone to hell” and that “Steve can turn it around, before it is too late, and, as President, I will help him to do so!”

The president’s support for Hilton is expected to pay immediate dividends at the state GOP convention.

HERE’S WHO TRUMP IS BACKING IN THE GOLDEN STATE GUBERNATORIAL SHOWDOWN

Republican governor candidate Steve Hilton speaks to press during Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates press event at Huntington Beach on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Huntington Beach, California. Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates announced his run for California attorney general. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

“I think it definitely can help rally the base behind a candidate and generate some noise and some enthusiasm,” California Republican Party chairwoman Corrin Rankin told Fox News Digital.

Bianco is a loyal Trump supporter who has plenty of friends and support among California Republican insiders. But Trump’s endorsement of Hilton, a top adviser to then-British Prime Minister David Cameron a decade and a half ago before moving to the U.S. and becoming an American citizen in 2021, may boost him at the GOP convention, where backing from 60% of delegates is needed to land the party’s endorsement.

But Bianco, the sheriff who recently grabbed plenty of national attention for seizing ballots in Riverside County, appeared defiant.

“For too long, politicians and insiders from Sacramento to Washington have tried to pick our leaders for us. That’s not leadership, that’s a coronation, and it’s exactly how we ended up with the failed leadership Californians are living with today,” he said in a social media video. “This election belongs to the people, not the political class.”

TOUGH ON CRIME REPUBLICAN SHERIFF LAUNCHES BID FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR

Sheriff Chad Bianco of Riverside County speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 15, 2024, in Washington, DC. This week marks National Police Week, which sees thousands of police officers from departments across the country coming to Washington DC to honor law enforcement who died in the line of duty. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Trump’s endorsement may have another unintended consequence.

Candidates from both major political parties appear on the same ballot in the left-leaning state’s June primary, with the top two finishers advancing to November’s general election.

Some Democrats were concerned that with nine candidates in the race, support among Democratic voters would be so badly divided in the primary that no contender would reach the general election. Hilton and Bianco had been the top two candidates in some public opinion polls, giving some in the GOP hope of a final face-off between two Republicans.

That scenario may be less likely now, as Hilton’s support is expected to rise and Bianco’s drop in light of the president’s endorsement. Polling in the past week gave a hint of a Hilton surge.

“Trump kills any GOP hopes of an R vs R runoff in the California governor’s race,” Rob Pyers of California Target Book, which describes itself as a non-partisan and unbiased political almanac, wrote last week in a social media post.

MEDIA PERSONALITY STEVE HILTON ENTERS CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE

Trump’s endorsement of Hilton has sent shock waves through California’s Republican Party.  (Alex Brandon/AP)

But Hilton dismissed as a pipe dream talk of shutting out the Democrats from the general election ballot.

“That scenario of two Republicans [making the general election ballot], I’ve been saying this for months, was always a fantasy,” Hilton said on Fox Business’ “The Bottom Line.” “The idea that the Democrat machine in California was just going to hand over the state to two Republicans was never serious. It was never, never going to happen.”

He further argued, “What was more likely was actually…you were going to have two Democrats in the top two and then we’ll have no chance of change. So this really makes sure that we have a Republican in the top two.”

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No Republican has won a statewide election in California since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-election victory.

And with the president’s approval rating in California hovering in the 30s, Trump’s endorsement will likely do Hilton no favors if he makes it onto the November ballot.

NEW YORK — The Democratic Party’s most ambitious politicians are courting African American activists in New York this week as the party’s unofficial 2028 presidential nomination contest takes shape at an annual conference led by Rev. Al Sharpton.

Up first was Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who warned that “everyone is less safe” because of President Donald Trump’s leadership and blamed him for a nationwide surge in antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and bigotry.

“There’s more chaos, there’s more cruelty in our world,” Shapiro said. “Even if we disagree on health care policy or tax policy or whatever, we should at least, at a baseline, have an honorable president of the United States. We do not have that right now.”

The Democratic governor, already considered a top-tier 2028 presidential prospect with a clear path to reelection in his battleground state this year, delivered a scathing criticism of the Republican president on the opening day of the National Action Network’s four-day conference. More than a half-dozen potential candidates are speaking here to make inroads among Black leaders, one of Democrats’ most powerful voting blocs.

The presidential primary season won’t begin in earnest until after November’s midterm elections, but this week’s conference is showcasing a collection of Democrats already jockeying for position in what promises to be a crowded primary fight.

For now, at least, there is no clear early favorite.

“Everybody’s talking about who may run for president,” said Sharpton, the National Action Network’s founder and president. “I want to first know what their vision is now, and what they’re doing now. So I’ve invited all of the people that could run.”

In addition to Shapiro, the speaking program features Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, and Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the last Democratic presidential nominee, is also scheduled to speak. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another likely contender, won’t be in attendance because of a previously scheduled family commitment, his team said, noting that he met with Sharpton earlier in the year.

One doesn’t have to look far to see the outsized influence that Black voters wield in Democratic nomination contests.

In 2020, Buttigieg was a top vote-getter in the Iowa caucus and scored a strong second place in New Hampshire — both overwhelmingly white states — before Joe Biden dominated South Carolina on the strength of the Black vote.

Biden’s long-established relationship with the African American community, backed by his perceived electability advantage, ultimately helped him beat back a strong push by progressive favorite Sen. Bernie Sanders.

All of the 2028 prospects are quick to criticize Trump, although there is broad agreement that Democrats also need to highlight what they stand for — instead of solely what they’re against.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the conference.

Khanna, a Sanders ally who also addressed activists on Wednesday, told The Associated Press that progressive candidates in 2028 could make greater inroads with Black voters “by speaking to the Civil Rights tradition and offering a vision rooted in Black history.”

“A 2028 contender needs to articulate and run on a new moral vision for America,” Khanna said. Any presidential candidate’s platform, he added, “must be as much inspired by the greats of Douglass and King” — referring to abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. — while “offering a new vision for racial justice, economic justice, peace in the world, against militarism, against racism, against wealth inequality.”

Shapiro, who was a finalist in Harris’ search for a running mate in 2024, highlighted both his electability and his commitment to African American priorities while on stage.

He described Pennsylvania as “the ultimate swing state,” while defending diversity, equity and inclusion programs and insisting that police must be “held to account” if they do something wrong.

He also went after Trump again and again, suggesting that the looming midterm elections should be “a national referendum on Donald Trump and on what is happening in Washington, D.C.”

Ashley Sharpton, Rev. Sharpton’s youngest daughter, said she was surprised by the audience’s enthusiasm and engagement while Shapiro and Khanna were on stage on the conference’s first day. She said she’s looking forward to hearing from Moore, Harris and Buttigieg.

“That’s why people come,” she said. “They want to get some of that energy, that consistency, that base.”

ROME, GA — Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller says that Tuesday’s special election runoff in Georgia is “extremely crucial.”

Fuller is facing off against Democrat Shawn Harris in the race to fill the seat in Georgia’s solidly red 14th Congressional District — in the northwest part of the state — left vacant when MAGA firebrand Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped down at the beginning of January. Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a bitter falling out with President Donald Trump.

The special election, held on the same day as a state Supreme Court contest in battleground Wisconsin, comes as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218–214 majority in the House. The GOP cannot afford any surprises or allow the Democrats to pull an upset in the special election, in a district Trump carried by a whopping 37 points in his 2024 presidential victory.

“We need the reinforcements,” Fuller, a local district attorney and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard who’s served in the Air Force since 2009, emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff election, as he pointed to the GOP’s fragile majority. “I think the voters in Georgia 14 understand that, and they’re looking forward to sending a MAGA America first fighter up on Capitol Hill to support that agenda.”

PRIMARY PAUSE, POLITICAL FIRESTORM: HIGH-STAKES ELECTIONS THIS MONTH TAKE CENTER STAGE

Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller, left, speaks next to President Donald Trump, during a visit to the Coosa Steel Corporation in Rome, Georgia, Feb. 19, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Asked if he was concerned that MAGA supporters would sit out what may be a low turnout election since the president is not on the ballot, Fuller said voters “would crawl through glass to make sure they have a representative up there that fight for them and fight for President Trump, and that’s why we’re going to have the votes pouring out on April 7.”

TRUMP HITS CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN KEY BATTLEGROUND AS RACE TO REPLACE MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE HEATS UP

Harris, a cattle farmer who spent four decades in the military and retired as an Army brigadier general, needs the support of crossover Republicans in order to pull off an upset.

“I am a Democrat, but I’m not tied to the party,” Harris highlighted as he spoke with Fox News Digital. And Harris argued, “My opponent, Clay, cannot say that. He actually sold his soul to President Trump.”

Harris, pointing to surging gas prices fueled by Trump’s military attack on Iran, said when voters “go to the polls, they will have to stop at the pump, and that’ll be the last thing they think about before they go and vote. And they’re going to say, ‘You know what, Shawn Harris is the only one that’s talking about bringing down costs, Shawn Harris is the only one saying, ‘I’m going to stand up for the people here in Northwest Georgia, period.'”

“We will win this war militarily. However, if we don’t watch it and be clear with the American people, based on these gas prices and diesel prices, we could actually lose this war politically.”

Harris said he “will support President Trump on things like the…southern border.” But he added “when it comes to things like…a forever war. Send me. I will push back.”

Fuller said that “the voters in Georgia-14 support the president in this endeavor. They understand that the Iranian regime was a long term threat to our national security…they understand that President Trump is making the world safer, and they understand that there may be short term pain at the gas pump, and they’ll expect those prices to drop as soon as this conflict is over.”

Harris grabbed 37% of the vote, with Fuller at 35% amid a field of 17 candidates, including 12 Republicans, in the first round of voting in early March. Since no candidate topped 50%, Harris and Fuller advanced to Tuesday’s runoff.

The congressional seat — which stretches from Atlanta’s outer suburbs to the state’s northwest borders with Alabama and Tennessee — was left vacant when Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a very public falling out with Trump mostly over her push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks during a news conference with 10 of the alleged victims of disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

While Greene remains popular among Republicans in the district, Fuller said the voters he’s talked with on the campaign trail “are focused on the fights of the future, not anything that had happened in the past.”

Asked if he’s talked with Greene, Fuller said he “reached out to Rep. Greene, had conversations with her and got advice on the district, and I’ll keep those conversations confidential.”

Harris, who as a first-time candidate lost to Greene by nearly 29 points in her 2024 re-election, emphasized that “I’m not running against Marjorie Taylor Greene anymore,” and that his name “carries more weight than any other name in this district.”

If Harris loses but holds Fuller’s margin to the mid-teens or less, national Democrats will argue the election is the latest in nearly 15 months since Trump returned to the White House in which they overperformed.

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The ballot box brawl in Northwest Georgia isn’t the only electoral showdown on Tuesday. There’s also a state Supreme Court election in battleground Wisconsin.

While officially a non-partisan contest, state Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin have become extremely partisan in recent years.

With the court’s majority on the line in last year’s contest, outside money poured in and out-of-state door knockers blanketed Wisconsin. One of the biggest spenders was Trump ally Elon Musk, who headlined a rally days before the election and donned a cheesehead hat worn by fans of the Green Bay Packers.

Then-Trump adviser Elon Musk appears at a town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in March. Musk and his super PACs spent more than $2 million to support conservative Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel’s campaign. (Scott Olson/Getty)

Democrats won that election by a larger-than-expected margin and currently hold a 4-3 majority on Wisconsin’s highest court.

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With a conservative justice retiring, the majority isn’t at stake in this year’s election, although if state Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, a former democratic state representative, wins, liberals would expand their majority on the high court to 5-2.

If Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, a conservative, wins or keeps the margins close, the GOP may claim a moral victory.

Steve Friess, the son of the late Republican mega donor Foster Friess, just threw his hat in the ring to run for Wyoming’s open at-large House seat, seeking to pivot from helping fund political candidates to becoming one himself. 

Friess announced this week that he would be throwing his hat in the ring for Wyoming’s vacant, at-large House seat, which is currently held by Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., who, in December, indicated she would not run for reelection but instead for the U.S. Senate to replace retiring GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis.

Friess’s father, Foster, ran for governor of Wyoming in 2018 before his subsequent passing a few years later. Despite losing in a fiercely competitive race, the late GOP businessman and donor was able to obtain the backing of Donald Trump at the time. His son, Steve, says he thinks he too can help lead Trump’s America First agenda “confidently and boldly.”

GOP GUBERNATORIAL HOPEFUL HAILS LEGENDARY GOLFER FOR HEFTY CAMPAIGN DONATION: ‘INCREDIBLY HONORED’

Foster Friess speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center in 2018, the same year he ran for governor of Wyoming. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“I’m optimistic that I can help lead others to be very confidently and boldly continuing the America First agenda for President Trump. I think you can’t – you can’t always do that as a donor. You know, you write a check and you don’t always get what you hope comes out on the other side,” Friess, a longtime Wyoming resident, told Fox News Digital.

Friess, a longtime Wyoming native, describes himself as a “political outsider,” but at the same time is touting his record in “the trenches” fighting for conservative causes. 

Friess was one of the early seed funders of the late GOP activist Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, raised the first million dollars for Tea Party Patriots and has been a big finder of the election-integrity nonprofit True the Vote. In talking to Fox News Digital, Friess also touted his work helping get major GOP candidates elected, such as Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Montana GOP Governor Greg Gianforte.

TOP DEMS BRUSH OFF TIES TO IMAM WHO HELD MEMORIAL FOR IRANIAN LEADER WHO VOWED ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’

“Each of these gentlemen had great successful careers and then took the time in their life to engage in this way of serving the country. I think this is what the founders intended,” Friess said. “None of us, none of that group – we’re not doing this for, you know, as a career, a title, or a way to get ahead. We all have a sincere vision of serving our state and our nation.”

Steve Friess poses with a rifle in campaign photos.  (Friess for Wyoming)

Friess told Fox News Digital that he supports President Trump’s “bold” actions in Iran, described his actions in Venezuela as “wonderful” and said he wants to focus even more on the government’s budget priorities. 

Friess also said if elected, he would put his full support behind passing the SAVE America Act, a voter integrity law being pushed by Trump and Republicans aimed at shoring up election security, and has also said he would support term limits for members of Congress. 

Meanwhile, Friess told Fox News Digital that, if elected, he would also push to bring back Wyoming’s Federal Bureau of Mines, a federal agency previously housed under the Department of the Interior created in 1910 but later closed in 1966.

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“One important issue that I think we face from a national security level is the fact that China has us over the barrel for a lot of strategic minerals. Wyoming has those strategic minerals, and I’m going to be calling for the recreation of something that was once known as the Bureau of Mines,” Friess posited. “What I’m envisioning is a government entity that’ll be here in Wyoming, not a new bureaucracy in DC, but it will be designed to expedite, streamline and advance the idea of making use of the resources that we have here, both from a jobs perspective and an opportunity perspective, but also from a national security perspective.”

A Democratic lawmaker created an online firestorm after appearing to inadvertently make the case for stricter voter ID requirements while criticizing a Trump-backed election bill.

Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., repeatedly said Monday that Democrats were not against voter identification at the ballot box as he discussed his opposition to the SAVE America Act at a town hall with constituents. The Alabama Democrat, however, appeared to imply that the town hall attendees might have a problem with it.

“I’m of a different era, I’m of a different generation. I probably feel a little bit differently about it,” Figures, 40, told a seemingly older crowd. “But watch this: how many people in here do not have an ID?”

No one’s hand went up. 

Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., speaks at a press conference on healthcare with other members of the House Democratic caucus in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

REPUBLICANS SHRED ‘NONSENSE’ DEM CLAIMS AGAINST TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL

After a noticeable pause, Figures appeared to nod in agreement. 

“Everybody has an ID, right?” Figures said, adding that he believed “20, 30, 40 years ago, it was a lot different.”

A shortened clip of the exchange posted to social media sparked backlash among conservatives, who said the video proved that a majority of Americans would have no issue complying with photo ID requirements.

“Democrat Rep. Figures’ rhetoric on Voter ID absolutely backfires when every single person he’s talking to has an ID,” David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, wrote on social media. 

“OOPS. Rep. Shomari Figures (D) just accidentally OBLITERATED his Party’s own narrative that people don’t have IDs to vote,” the viral Libs of TikTok account added.

Figures disputed that he expected someone in the audience not to have an ID, in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

“If you listen to the entire exchange, which they intentionally cut short, you will clearly see that I was making the point that these days everyone has an ID,” Figures said, referring to viral clips of a shortened exchange that circulated on social media.

“I asked the audience a rhetorical question: ‘How many people here do not have an ID?” he continued. “I fully expected no one to raise their hand.”

The exchange comes as top Democrats in Washington have long opposed photo ID rules for voting, often likening such restrictions to Jim Crow laws meant to keep minority Americans disenfranchised. 

A GOP push to add a photo ID requirement as an amendment to the SAVE America Act was defeated by Democrats in March, despite Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying Democrats support showing identification at the polling booth.

But Democratic lawmakers’ opposition to voter ID rules appears to be increasingly out of step with voters. More than seven in 10 Democratic voters and 76% of Black voters support showing government-issued photo ID to vote, according to a 2025 Pew Research Center poll.

Photo ID requirements are already widespread, with 36 states, including Alabama, mandating identification when voting. Supporters note there has been no observed effect on turnout.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., arrives for a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS SAY THEY SUPPORT VOTER ID, THEN BLOCK GOP AMENDMENT TO REQUIRE IT

Figures said his opposition to the SAVE America Act revolves around its proof of citizenship requirement to vote in federal elections. Eligible documents include a U.S. passport or birth certificate, which Figures argues is too stringent. 

Later in the town hall, the Alabama Democrat asked the crowd if everyone had easy access to their birth certificate or a passport. When not everyone raised their hand, he said, “There’s the problem.”

“My point is that if a driver’s license is the most common form of ID that the overwhelming majority of people have, then it should be enough to allow people to vote,” Figures told Fox News Digital. “The bottom line is that the SAVE Act is a bill that makes it harder for people to vote by requiring them to obtain additional forms of identification.”

President Donald Trump addresses the nation to give an update on Iran.  (Alex Brandon/Pool via Reuters)

SCHUMER, JEFFRIES SUE TRUMP, ACCUSE HIM OF TRYING TO ‘RIG’ MAIL-IN VOTING

Proponents of the SAVE America Act note that a majority of Americans have recently had to show a birth certificate or passport to the government to receive a REAL ID. They also point out that some states issue driver’s licenses to noncitizens, though those individuals are explicitly barred from voting in federal elections.

Figures was among nearly all Democrats who voted against the SAVE America Act when it passed the House, and the measure has since stalled in the Senate. 

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The upper chamber, however, is expected to continue debating the legislation in April amid a pressure campaign from Trump to advance the measure to his desk.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order targeting mail-in voting and voter eligibility, calling the move a major step toward restoring confidence in U.S. elections.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said the order is focused on “voter integrity and Mail-In ballots” and on “stopping the massive cheating that’s gone on.”

“We’re going to be signing an executive order,” Trump said. “It’s, I believe it’s foolproof… I think it’s very obvious what’s said.”

The order directs federal agencies to work with states to compile lists of eligible voters using federal citizenship and identity data, while also instructing the U.S. Postal Service to develop new safeguards for mail-in ballots, including barcode tracking and verification measures.

TRUMP REVEALS TOP ISSUES GOP SHOULD FOCUS ON TO SECURE MIDTERMS VICTORY: ‘I’VE NEVER BEEN MORE CONFIDENT’

President Donald Trump signs an executive order addressing mail-in ballots in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, in Washington, D.C. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Under the order, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) working with the Social Security Administration and other federal databases, will create and share “State Citizenship Lists” with state election officials. 

The lists are intended to identify individuals confirmed to be U.S. citizens who will be at least 18 years old by the time of a federal election and who reside in that state.

Those lists are to be updated and transmitted to states ahead of federal elections, according to the order.

The order also directs the attorney general to prioritize investigations and potential prosecutions involving officials or others who issue ballots to individuals not eligible to vote in federal elections, as well as those involved in the “printing, production, shipment, or distribution of ballots” to ineligible voters.

SCOTUS CONSERVATIVES SIGNAL READINESS TO CURB LATE-ARRIVING MAIL BALLOTS

President Donald Trump addresses members of the assembled media after signing an executive order, Tuesday, in the Oval Office. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On mail ballots, the executive order calls on the postmaster general to initiate a rule-making process within 60 days. Proposed changes include requiring ballots to be clearly marked as official election mail, including a unique Intelligent Mail barcode or similar tracking technology, and undergoing Postal Service design review.

The order also outlines a system under which states would notify USPS if they plan to use mail-in or absentee ballots and provide lists of eligible voters, allowing the Postal Service to maintain participation records tied to ballot distribution.

Trump framed the changes as a direct response to what he described as longstanding vulnerabilities in voting by mail.

NOEM BACKS SAVE AMERICA ACT, SLAMS ‘RADICAL LEFT’ OPPOSITION TO VOTER IDS AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, left, looks on as President Donald Trump prepares to sign an executive order addressing mail-in voting. ( Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

“The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary,” he said. “It’s horrible what’s going on.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration is pushing for a system that ties each ballot to a trackable envelope.

“If you voted by mail, you will have it on the envelope,” Lutnick said. “There’ll be a million envelopes… and you’ll be able to know exactly correctly, that citizens voted.”

Trump said additional election-related measures, including voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements, are also under consideration.

“We’d like to have voter ID, we’d like to have proof of citizenship… we’re working on that,” he said.

He also argued that opposition to such measures is politically motivated.

“The only people that don’t want to do voter ID are people that cheat,” Trump said.

Trump acknowledged the order could face legal challenges but said he believes it will withstand them.

“I don’t know how it can be challenged,” Trump said after signing the order. “You may find a rogue judge… but that’s the only way that could be changed.”

The executive order states that voting in federal elections is reserved “exclusively for citizens of the United States” and argues that additional safeguards are necessary to “maintain public confidence in election outcomes.” It also says that ballot identifiers such as barcodes can help ensure that only eligible voters receive and cast ballots.

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Within minutes of Trump signing the order, top elections officials in Oregon and Arizona pledged to sue, arguing the president was illegally encroaching on states’ authority to run elections, according to The Associated Press.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state’s vote-by-mail system, originally designed by Republicans, is now used by about 80% of voters.

Arizona does not need the federal government to determine voter eligibility, and federal data is not always reliable, Fontes said.

Trump cast the issue in much broader terms.

“If you don’t have honest voting,” he said, “you can’t have really a nation.”

Democratic strategists are reportedly pushing for the 2028 presidential candidate to be a “straight, White, Christian man” after recent losses, an Axios report alleged.

“Some top Democrats are quietly debating a fraught question: whether the party’s best bet for winning back the presidency in 2028 is to nominate a man — perhaps a straight, White, Christian man,” Axios reported on Sunday.

“Their fear, divulged with dismay in group chats, at cocktail parties and increasingly in public, is that parts of the electorate are too biased to support a woman or other diverse candidate for president,” the report continued. 

MICHELLE OBAMA IS ‘ABSOLUTELY CORRECT’ SAYING AMERICA NOT READY FOR A WOMAN PRESIDENT, DEM LAWMAKER SAYS

Some Democratic strategists have felt apprehensive after former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The report noted that Democratic strategists have become apprehensive after both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to President Donald Trump in their respective campaigns, though most of these comments have happened “behind closed doors.”

“So not discounting the hundreds of other times men have lost…but is it the right thing to nominate a woman?” a national Democratic strategist told Axios.

Axios acknowledged that this concern would discount several high-profile candidates for 2028, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, California Rep. Ro Khanna and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

NANCY PELOSI RESPONDS TO MICHELLE OBAMA’S CLAIM THAT AMERICA ISN’T READY FOR WOMAN PRESIDENT, ASKS ‘WHY NOT?’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is among the few prominent potential Democratic presidential candidates who could qualify as a straight, White, Christian male. (Gary Miller/FilmMagic)

“Democratic strategists have put it bluntly, with several saying a version of ‘It has to be a White guy,'” Axios reported.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic National Committee for comment.

Of the potential 2028 presidential candidates, Axios noted only Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and California Gov. Gavin Newsom qualify as “a straight, White, Christian man.”

MODERATE DEMOCRATS LOOKING PAST KAMALA HARRIS FOR 2028, SUGGESTING PARTY ‘START OVER’

The report followed former first lady Michelle Obama’s past comments insisting that the U.S. was “not ready” for a woman president.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama repeatedly argued that the U.S. isn’t ready to elect a female president. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

“That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running, because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not,” she said in November.

Obama doubled down on those comments during a podcast appearance in January.

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“There are men out there that were not [going to] vote for a woman,” she said.