President Donald Trump has ordered his Commerce Department to change the U.S. Census in a move critics fear could dramatically bolster his chances at the next election.
After pushing to redraw maps in Texas to advantage Republicans, the president announced on Thursday that he had instructed his department to work on a new census that does not take into account undocumented immigrants.
“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The move has already proved contentious, with critics describing it as a power grab to rig future elections.
“The next part of the plan to steal the midterms and/or the 2028 election - an attempt to do a mid-decade census to take seats and electoral votes away from blue states,” former Republican turned anti-Trumper Ron Filipkowski wrote on X.
“I knew this was coming.”
At present, the U.S. Census currently counts all residents, regardless of immigration status. This means congressional seats and Electoral College votes are allocated based on the total population, not just citizens.
In theory, if Trump can change the system, states with larger numbers of undocumented immigrants, such as California, could lose representation. Meanwhile, power could shift to states with fewer immigrants, which tend to be more white, rural and Republican.
But the Census is currently conducted every 10 years and the last one was in 2020, so a mid-term count would likely require congressional authorization and face constitutional challenges.
And while federal law allows mid-decade censuses in certain circumstances, the law also states that such information can not be used to prescribe congressional districts.
Trump’s announcement on Thursday is also not the first time he has sought to alter the Census.
During his first term, his administration sought to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, which asked: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” with several response options covering birthplace and naturalization.
However, this was ultimately blocked by the Supreme Court, which found that it constituted an “egregious” violation of federal law.
While critics have hit out at the latest move, MAGA Republicans, who have long argued that Democrats are using undocumented immigrants to prop up their own votes, praised the president.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene reposted Trump’s announcement on her own account, while touting her own proposed bill to shake the system: a “Making American Elections Great Again Act,” which she said “not only orders a new census counting American citizens only, it also orders reapportionment by the new U.S. citizen.”
Trump’s announcement comes as the White House pushes Republican states to draw new Congressional maps that favor the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterms.
However, this has set off an election arms race, with Democrats warning that they would also be willing to redraw districts to stave off Trump and the GOP.
“Would the state of California move forward in kind? Fighting? Yes, fire with fire,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Tensions escalated this week when than fifty Texas House Democrats skipped town on Sunday in an effort to block a vote as Republicans sought to redraw their Congressional map.
“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats,” Trump said of the state’s redistricting attempts.
