"Learn From India!" Donald Trump Cites CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Demands Mandatory Voter Photo ID and Passage of SAVE America Act!

US President Donald Trump praised India's election system to make a strong case for overhauling American voting rules. Recalling a conversation involving India's Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Trump shared that the Indian election chief had asked US officials how the United States could conduct national elections without requiring a mandatory, valid photo ID. Highlighting the sheer scale of Indian democracy, Trump pointed out that India successfully conducted its last general election with 646 million voters where less than 1% voted by mail and every single citizen had to present a valid photo identity document, using the comparison to demand that the US Congress immediately pass the SAVE America Act.

The proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act seeks to introduce strict, uniform voter identification standards for all US federal elections. The legislation would require voters to provide documentary proof of US citizenship-such as a passport or birth certificate-when registering, mandate government-issued photo ID at polling stations, restrict mail-in voting to specific exceptions like illness or military deployment, and direct states to remove non-citizens from federal voter rolls. Backing the move, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor highlighted that while countries like India link voter rolls to structured identification, many US states still largely rely on self-attestation.

While Republicans maintain that strict photo ID and citizenship checks are common-sense safeguards to protect ballot integrity, critics and Democratic lawmakers argue that non-citizen voting is already illegal and rare, warning that rigid document mandates could disenfranchise eligible low-income citizens who do not possess immediate access to birth certificates or passports.