A senior White House adviser tasked with investigating the 2020 election sought to remove Dominion Voting Systems machines from more than half of all US states, according to a Reuters exclusive published on 22 May 2026. The plan, driven by White House adviserKurt Olsen, centred on asking whether the Commerce Department could declare Dominion's components national security risks, a move that would have effectively outlawed the machines from use in federal elections.

The idea emerged, sources said, as Olsen and other officials brainstormed about how the federal government could take control over elections from US states, an idea publicly aired by Trump. In 2024, at least 27 states relied on Dominion machines, and Olsen's plan, had it succeeded, would have upended the election infrastructure of the majority of the country ahead of the November midterms.

Kurt Olsen should be fired.His sham "investigation" into debunked 2020 election fraud claims — and his dangerous attempts to interfere in the upcoming midterms — are a threat to our democracy.It’s past time for him to go.https://t.co/2B8aOccz46

A main focus of Olsen's efforts to find evidence of foreign hacking is the debunked theory that Dominion machines were infected with code controlled by Venezuelans to steal the 2020 election from Trump. Repeated investigations and lawsuits since 2020 have produced no evidence that Dominion machines were hacked.

In 2023, Fox News paid Dominion$787 million(£619 million) in a defamation case over false election-rigging claims. Despite this, Trump has continued to repeat the allegations. A September White House meeting convened to discuss the machines included cyber experts at the National Security Council. The group, which included Olsen's team, discussed whether Dominion's equipment contained traces of Venezuelan code.

Olsen wanted a national system of hand-counted paper ballots, a frequent Trump demand that election-security researchers and officials in multiple states have argued would be less accurate and potentially riskier than the current system of machines with auditable paper trails that almost all cities and states use.

Others involved in the deliberations included Paul McNamara, a senior aide of Trump's spy chief Tulsi Gabbard, and Brian Sikma, a special assistant to Trump who works on his Domestic Policy Council. Olsen has worked closely with Gabbard's Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Early last summer, McNamara asked officials in the Commerce Department to consider the potential designation of Dominion chips and software as a national security risk. The plan ultimately collapsed because Olsen and other administration staffers failed to provide evidence to justify such a move, two sources said.

Olivia Coleman, a spokesperson for Gabbard's agency, said ODNI, including McNamara, 'did not brief on nor coordinate a plan with the Department of Commerce to take actions to ban Dominion voting machines.' Olsen, McNamara and Sikma did not respond to requests for interviews.

Responding to the Reuters report, Democratic US Senator Alex Padilla said Olsen should be fired, calling him a threat to democracy in apost on X. Padilla has been one of the most vocal critics of Olsen's role in the administration.

Source: International Business Times UK