Former US president Donald Trump has stated that he regrets not deploying the National Guard to seize voting machines following his 2020 election loss. In an interview with the New York Times, Trump continued to make baseless claims that the election was rigged against him.
Trump's comments come after reports emerged of a December 2020 Oval Office meeting where advisers, including lawyer Sidney Powell and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, urged him to use military or federal authorities to seize Dominion voting machines in key swing states. Draft executive orders were reportedly presented to Trump for this purpose.
However, the proposal faced resistance from senior administration officials, including then-Attorney General William Barr, who immediately rejected the idea. Trump ultimately did not proceed with the plan.
In the interview, when asked if using the National Guard would be an option, Trump questioned their capability, saying, 'I don’t know that they are sophisticated enough... in the ways of crooked Democrats.' He also repeated his unfounded claim that he won the 2020 election, stating, 'I won three times.'
Despite his continued assertions, election integrity experts have affirmed that the 2020 presidential election was the most secure in history, and numerous legal challenges by Trump's campaign failed.
