Trump Says He Will Accept the 2026 Midterm Results ‘If the Elections Are Honest’

President Donald Trump said he would accept the results of the midterms “if the elections are honest,” telling NBC’s Tom Llamas on Wednesday that if that proves not to be the case, “something else has to happen.”

Trump spoke to Llamas in a pre-Super Bowl interview in the Oval Office, where the NBC Nightly News anchor asked him to clarify his recent claim that Republicans should “nationalize” the voting process.

“I didn’t say ‘nationalize,'” Trump responded. “I said there are some areas in the country that are extremely corrupt. They have very corrupt elections. Take a look at Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta. There are some areas that are unbelievably corrupt.”

He continued:

I could give you plenty more, too. I say that we cannot have corrupt elections. If we have to, if they don’t straighten it out. As an example: voter ID. Why don’t the Democrats want voter ID? You know who does want voter ID? Democrat voters want it, but Democrat politicians don’t. Why don’t they want it? Because they want to cheat on elections.

Can you imagine, if I were a politician and they asked me, “Do you want voter identification?” and I said, “No,” there’s no way you can win that debate. If Democrats don’t want voter ID, if they don’t want voter ID, that means they want to cheat. We can’t allow cheating in elections. Now, if we need to put in federal controls as opposed to state controls. Remember this, they’re really an agent. They’re really accumulating the votes for who wins an election. If they can’t do it honestly, and it can’t be done properly and timely, then something else has to happen.

Trump seemed to echo claims from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who insisted on Tuesday that the president was endorsing the SAVE Act– a bill requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration– when he made his controversial comment on former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s podcast on Monday.

Many decried Trump’s words as a warning that the president would seek to meddle in the election process, a fear Llamas addressed in his follow-up question.

“Will you trust the results of the midterms if Republicans lose control of Congress?” asked Llamas.

Trump claimed he would accept a loss if the process was “honest,” claiming there was “cheating” in the 2024 election– notably adding another election process the president has deemed insufficiently fair.

“I will, if the elections are honest,” said Trump. “Look, I want– the last one that wants to complain. I just had a great election. They say one of the greatest elections, you will agree, ever. Won all seven swing states, won 84% of the counties in America. That’s why the map is all red. We just had a great election. I believe there was cheating. I think there was cheating. But, it was too big to rig.”

Watch above via NBC News.

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