Political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security requested that the agency secretly acquire and hack a voting machine a few months into President Donald Trump’s second term.

Posted by Ask Dr. Drew, Oct 21, 2026Checked Nov 2, 2026

Polygraph verdictTrue

Sources: 2 support7 context
Said: 1 time·
Confidence: 65%

Ask Dr. DrewOct 21, 2026

… But when Trump won in 2024, suddenly the “hacked voting machines” theory wasn’t so ridiculous anymore. A new bombshell report has both sides furiously blaming the other. This week, a ProPublic report claims “a few months into President Donald Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security made an unusual request of its agency focused on cybersecurity: Secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it.” Buried in the report: the request was never actually fulfilled. “Though not acted on, the request shows how the Trump administration has tried to use the agency for its own ends while draining it of resources for one of its critical missions: protecting the …

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ProPublica, a tier2 investigative outlet, reported from two former administration officials that DHS political appointees asked CISA to secretly acquire and hack a voting machine a few months into Trump's second term, and the claim matches that account.

What we found

Supports. ProPublica reports that a few months into Trump's second term, DHS political appointees asked CISA to secretly procure a voting machine, examine it, and report findings to the White House, according to two former administration officials.[2]

Supports. Security Boulevard reports that the directive instructed career staff to covertly procure and exploit a voting machine without notifying the manufacturer, and that the operation was ultimately aborted.[3]

Context. Reuters separately reports on a related Trump-aligned effort, led by Kurt Olsen, to examine a voting machine from Puerto Rico that involved DHS and other agencies, which lends context to the broader pattern but does not directly address this specific request.[1]

Context. Most other outlets (Political Wire, GovExec, Truthout, Defense One, The Mandarin, Yahoo) repeat the ProPublica account, so they add no independent corroboration of the request itself.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Context. The post's note that the request was never fulfilled is consistent with reporting that the operation was aborted; the claim only says a request was made.[2][3]