The highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military says there are no plans to send troops to polling places during November’s midterm congressional elections, addressing concerns among Democrats that the Trump administration could use the military to interfere with the vote.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statement in a letter to Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who recently asked Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to confirm they won’t send troops to the polls.
“The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections,” Caine said in the letter to Slotkin, which was obtained Monday by The Associated Press. “Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material.”
Caine, who advises Hegseth and President Donald Trump on military matters, also wrote: “I have neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections.”
Anxiety among Democrats that the Trump administration could try to meddle in the midterm elections has grown, particularly after the president deployed federal agents in Democratic-led states over the objections of local leaders.
Slotkin told the AP earlier in August that Trump has been laying the groundwork to claim the elections were stolen. She noted that Trump contemplated using the military to seize voting machines after his loss in 2020 and has deployed the National Guard to cities against the wishes of Democratic leaders. He also deployed active duty Marines to Los Angeles during his immigration crackdown in 2025.
Their training is to kill. It’s in the conduct and prosecution of war.
They might be better trained, but that training is not applicable to any law enforcement activity.
And it’s absolutely not fucking applicable to exercise your rights as an American citizen to vote.
Not all of them. I worked cyber systems in the Air Force and Air National Guard. I served State Active Duty during the 2018 election cycle (we didn’t go to any polling places and were told to wear civilian clothes in case we had to so we didn’t disturb people). During our basic training we spent all of half a day at a range learning to shoot. Not exactly a ton of learning how to kill. Most people in the military aren’t taught how to kill. There are far more people doing logistics work than doing the deadly stuff.