What’s Breaking Through About the Trump Administration’s 2020 Election Investigation

The 2020 presidential election was free, fair, and secure—a fact recognized by state and local election officials, the nation’s top election security experts, and state and federal courts. But tired lies and misinformation about alleged widespread fraud, foreign election tampering, and wrongdoing continue to be pushed many years later, including within the Trump administration.

In January 2026, the FBI raided the elections headquarters in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing 2020 election records. The county is now suing to get its records back, noting that the seizure was based on long-discredited conspiracy theories. All of the claims supporting the seizure have been investigated, and none of the inquiries have uncovered any evidence of fraud.

Two months later, the FBI issued grand jury subpoenas for election records of Maricopa County, Arizona—another target of the president’s ire since he lost the state in 2020. The seized records come from an investigation led by the Arizona Senate in 2021, which States United concluded, after a thorough expert analysis, was partisan and unreliable. County officials at the time gave a detailed rebuttal of the “audit,” and confirmed the election results were accurate and the voting process was secure.

Other states could be next. But these federal investigations are not happening in isolation. The Trump administration has waged a year-long pressure campaign against states and their authority—all while still perpetuating lies about the 2020 election. In March 2025, he signed an unconstitutional executive order that attempted to strip states of their constitutional powers to administer elections. Following that executive order, the U.S. Department of Justice made sweeping demands of states and counties to turn over their voters’ private information, all to the same end.

Here are the messages that we found are resonating with Americans, based on States United research:

• The 2020 election was free, fair, and secure.
  • Conspiracy theories about the 2020 election have already been heard by the courts and dismissed. People are ready to move on. This country needs leaders who look to the future.
• At a time when the United States faces serious challenges, the president is trying to settle old scores.
  • President Trump is using taxpayer dollars to re-investigate the 2020 election that was ruled free and fair over and over by the courts. We need those resources to solve real issues.
• The Constitution is crystal clear: Elections are run by the states.
  • Not only would a federal takeover of elections be illegal, but what about this administration’s conduct suggests we could trust them with our elections? Prices are up, the government is shutting down every few months, and ICE agents are shooting people in our communities. And they lie.
  • Our elections should be run by the people who know our voters best and who voters trust—our state and local officials.
  • While our local election officials are hard at work preparing for free, fair, and secure elections in 2026, our president is reviving tired lies about an election he lost more than five years ago. These attacks on our elections are unacceptable—and we need our leaders to call it out for what it is.
• If the Trump administration really cared about election security, it wouldn’t have cut millions of dollars from state and local election offices, intelligence agencies that fight foreign election interference, and other critical election programs.
  • Instead, the administration is seizing boxes of ballots from an election that happened more than five years ago.
  • This is not serious oversight or election protection.
• This is clearly not about election security.
  • This is an effort to change the subject from a string of damaging news for the president, like out-of-control ICE agents, the Epstein files, the price of groceries, and rising healthcare premiums. While Americans demand answers, the president is relitigating a settled election.