By Travis Gillmore

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday regulating elections nationwide by establishing a list of voters eligible to vote by mail.

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

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

According to the order—which is expected to spark legal challenges—only American citizens are eligible to vote by mail, with lists verified by the Homeland Security Department, in coordination with the Social Security Administration.

The U.S. Postal Service is ordered to only send ballots to individuals included on the lists, with unique bar codes applied to each envelope—one per voter—to facilitate tracking and audits.

The attorney general and department heads are instructed to forward evidence of violations to the Department of Justice for investigation.

Administration officials said the order, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” is a step toward restoring faith in the electoral process.

“We believe, combined, the measures in this order will help secure elections in the future and ensure the many abuses of our elections in the past are not repeated in future elections,” said Will Scharf, White House staff secretary and assistant to the president.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, other cabinet members echoed the sentiment, calling on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would strengthen election rules and require voter ID, among other regulations.

“The fundamentals of our democracy are built on voter integrity,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.

Trump said ensuring proof of citizenship and voter ID laws are of paramount importance.

“That will be another subject for another time. We are working on that,” he said, citing polls that show Americans overwhelmingly support the efforts. “You would think it would be easy.”

One Democratic lawmaker critical of the new order challenged the president’s authority.

“This executive order is a blatant, unconstitutional abuse of power,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

“Make no mistake: Trump’s attacks on our elections are a clear and present threat to our democracy.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the order as illegal and warned of incoming litigation.

“The President wants to limit which Americans can participate in our democracy,” Newsom’s press office wrote on March 31 on X. “California will see him in court.”

Trump anticipated legal action but expressed optimism, vowing to fight back against any attempts to derail the new law.

“I don’t know how it could be challenged. It could probably be challenged if you find a rogue judge,” he said while signing the order.

“We will appeal if it is, but I don’t see how anyone else could challenge it.”