November 4, 2025
Trump threatens executive action against California ballot measure while pushing Texas to redraw districts mid-decade
President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Nov. 4, 2025, that California Proposition 50 should be under a "very serious legal and criminal review."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Nov. 4 that the White House was "looking into" executive action and said the administration was working on an executive order related to election integrity — comments framed as a response to the special-election vote.\n\nProposition 50 would temporarily shift power to redraw congressional districts to the California Legislature, producing a map that many analysts describe as favorable to Democrats and adopted amid a national fight over mid-decade redistricting after Republican-led maps in Texas.\n\nCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber rejected the president's fraud claims; Weber called the allegation "another baseless claim" and urged Californians to vote.
President Trump posted on Truth Social on Nov. 4, 2025, calling Proposition 50 a "GIANT SCAM" and saying "All 'Mail-In' Ballots... is under very serious legal and criminal review.".
White House press secretary 
Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Nov. 4 that the White House was "looking into executive action" and said the administration was working on an executive order addressing alleged fraud in California's mail voting. Leavitt did not claim the president can unilaterally nullify a statewide ballot measure.
Proposition 50 was a 2025 California constitutional amendment on the November 4 special election ballot that would temporarily return congressional redistricting authority to the Legislature and produce a new map widely described as favorable to Democrats, put forward after Republican-led mid-decade redistricting in other states.
California Secretary of State 
Shirley Weber called the president's claims "another baseless claim," and she urged voters to go to the polls. California election officials and the state's attorney general's office described the allegations as unsupported.
The Constitution assigns primary authority over the "times, places and manner" of congressional elections to the states and gives Congress the power to regulate federal election rules. Legal experts said the president lacks a clear constitutional mechanism to unilaterally overturn a state ballot measure or take over state redistricting.
Mid-decade redistricting has increased as state partisan control has shifted. Texas Republican leaders pursued mid-decade map changes in 2023; those moves helped trigger political and legislative responses in Democratic-led states including California.
