US election overhaul: Trump signs sweeping executive order

US President Donald Trump has signed a sweeping executive action to overhaul elections.

Trump signed what his administration is calling “the farthest-reaching executive action taken in the history of the Republic to secure our elections.”

It is designed to “cut down” on the number of immigrants in the country illegally on the voter rolls, and would “fully weaponize” Department of Homeland Security data to make sure such migrants aren’t casting ballots.

The action seeks to include a “citizenship question” on federal voting forms, and reduce federal election funding to states that don’t take “reasonable steps” to secure their balloting.

It also revokes a Biden administration order from 2021 designed to promote access to voting.

After signing, Trump said that more election actions would be taken in coming weeks.

Trump answered reporter questions during a White House meeting with his administration’s ambassadors to various overseas posts.

Trump said he would "love" to strip PBS and NPR of any federal funding.

Trump told reporters that he thinks both outlets are "very unfair" and "very biased."

He looked at the assembly of reporters around him and said that "right now, there's plenty of coverage," stressing that the two outlets that also depend on donations were "from a different age."

"It's a waste of money," Trump said of PBS and NPR.

Trump is also suggesting that he could soon take executive action to end “sanctuary cities,” which generally are described as areas that limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"We're gonna end sanctuary cities for some of these jurisdictions that aren't cooperating with law enforcement," he said.

Trump didn’t provide details, but has spent years criticizing Democrat-led jurisdictions for failing to impose harder line immigration policies.

He added, "We may be presenting you very shortly with an executive order ending sanctuary cities."

(Associated Press)