Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered the Department of War to step up “whole-of-government” defenses of U.S. election systems against foreign threats ahead of the 2026 midterms.
In a directive signed Monday, Hegseth instructed U.S. Cyber Command and combat support agencies to prioritize advanced intelligence and cyber tools aimed at detecting, disrupting, and stopping foreign efforts to interfere with American elections, in support of President Trump’s focus on election integrity.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that Cyber Command and defense intelligence teams will work with federal, state, and local partners to safeguard voting systems, expose foreign influence campaigns, and keep democratic processes free from outside manipulation.
Gen. Joshua M. Rudd, who leads U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, noted that the two organizations already partner closely to counter malicious foreign cyber actors. The department said it will use its capabilities to protect the reliability of voting systems from external disruption by foreign actors, while continuing to uphold the country’s core freedoms.
The directive focuses on foreign threats and does not address domestic election procedures.
