Hegseth orders Pentagon to fight foreign meddling in US elections

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered the military’s cyber and intelligence agencies to prioritise defending the November midterm elections against foreign interference, in a one-page memorandum titled “Countering Foreign Threats to 2026 Elections” released publicly on Monday, Axios reports.

The memorandum, dated 22 September, is addressed to the commander of US Cyber Command and the directors of the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. “Commander U.S. Cyber Command and the Directors of the Combat Support Agencies will prioritize the use of DoW intelligence and cyber capabilities to ensure foreign actors do not meddle in our democratic systems,” Hegseth wrote.

Hegseth directed the defence intelligence enterprise to “mobilize every authorized asset, capability, and partnership” to defend election infrastructure from “foreign malign influence”, calling protecting the elections “a no-fail mission”. Cyber Command is to use its existing authorities, working with the Department of Homeland Security, to counter cyber threats from foreign actors, Nextgov reports.

The memo quotes President Donald Trump as saying “free and fair elections are the foundation of our republic”. Axios reports the order does not send military personnel to polling places, though Trump has not ruled that out. It names no specific adversaries and sets no new staffing or funding levels. The directive lands amid a broader retreat from federal foreign-influence tracking, with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force dismantled earlier this administration, Nextgov notes. The midterms are on 3 November.