During the 2026 State of the Union address, President Trump asserted harmful and extremely inaccurateallegations about the state of the country. These include baseless claims that fraud is rampant in the American elections system — claims that have been continuously disproven — and inaccurate claims about the diversity that makes our nation strong.
The president also spoke about the deployment of the national guard in several cities as a way of illustrating that his policies made American cities safer, while demonizing and repeating falsehoods about immigrants. As he often does, he used non-citizen voting, which is exceedingly rare, as a Trojan horse for restrictive voting policies that would make it harder for all eligible voters to exercise their constitutional right.
In response to last night’s speech, the Legal Defense Fund issued the following statement:
“Yesterday, President Trump accelerated his efforts to weaponize the federal government against Black voters and other voters of color by calling on Congress to enact onerous and discriminatory barriers to the ballot that infringe upon the basic freedoms of all voters. The SAVE America Act will save no one — rather it would function as a poll tax that forces voters to pay for additional documentation and would reverse the federal government’s historic role as a bulwark against discrimination.
“We cannot let this administration’s fear of an inclusive multiracial democracy override free, full, and fair access to the polls for eligible voters. The Senate must reject the SAVE America Act and focus instead on policies that promote the freedom to vote — such as restoring the Voting Rights Act and ensuring voters across the country have multiple pathways to the polls.”
To learn more about LDF’s 2026 policy priorities, visit here.
To learn more about the harmful effects of the SAVE America Act, visit here.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF’s archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.
[AL1]Are we responding to the bill or to his call to pass the bill?
[JH2]His call to pass the bill, I can adjust to make that more clear
[AL3]Could cut this for space.
