President Donald Trump sharply criticized New Mexico’s election system on Friday, calling the state’s elections “so corrupt it’s incredible” during a White House roundtable focused on rural health care.
Trump made the remarks in response to a question from a woman who identified herself as a nurse practitioner and a county commissioner from northwest New Mexico. She raised concerns about medical compacts and noted that state lawmakers are expected to take up the issue during the upcoming 30-day legislative session.
Rather than addressing the policy question directly, Trump pivoted to election integrity, asserting that New Mexico’s election practices prevent Republicans from winning statewide races.
“They’ve got to clean up their elections in New Mexico because those elections are so corrupt it’s incredible,” Trump said. “If they clean it up, we win by a lot. But they are really corrupt elections,” the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Trump went further, describing New Mexico as “one of the more corrupt states” when it comes to elections. “We have great love in New Mexico, but the elections are so corrupt there’s not much you can do about it,” he said, adding that similar issues exist in “numerous states,” according to the report.
The roundtable was broadcast Friday morning on C-SPAN from the East Room of the White House and followed an administration announcement last month that $10 billion would be invested nationwide through the Rural Health Care Transformation Program. Under the initiative, New Mexico is slated to receive $211 million to support rural hospitals.
Trump’s comments drew swift pushback from the far-left Democrat-run New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office, which characterized the remarks as inaccurate and offensive. Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the office, said the president’s comments were “both insulting and uninformed,” according to the Journal.
“If the President was paying attention, he would know New Mexico runs the nation’s top-ranked elections and that we are well-known for our security, access, and accuracy,” Curtas said in a statement.
Curtas pointed to the Elections Performance Index, a national report that has ranked New Mexico at the top among states based on voter turnout, election infrastructure, wait times at polling places, and administration of voting by mail. He also highlighted specific security measures used in the state, including 100% paper ballots, mandatory post-election audits, air-gapped vote-counting systems, and ongoing voter roll maintenance.
“New Mexicans of all political stripes are proud of our state’s strong election security measures,” Curtas added.
Republicans, however, defended Trump’s remarks. Amy Barela, chairwoman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, said Trump’s comments were “totally valid,” according to the Journal. She accused far-left Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver (who is running for lieutenant governor) of failing to comply with federal election integrity laws and prioritizing politics over public confidence in elections, of which her office is refusing to release information — casting even more doubt on the credibility of the state’s electoral system, as we previously reported.
“At a time when confidence in our electoral process is at an all-time low, Toulouse Oliver, like each one of her Democratic peers, is putting politics over the people of New Mexico — and people are tired of it,” Barela said in an email response.
The event also underscored broader health care funding debates. While the new rural health care program directs billions to states, including New Mexico, H.R. 1 — the large tax package passed in July — made significant cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and food assistance programs. In New Mexico, changes to Medicaid could result in the loss of an estimated $8.5 billion in federal funding between 2028 and 2037, according to a New Mexico Health Care Authority guide cited by the Albuquerque Journal.
NM is a gerrymandered illusion of democracy. 40 percent or more of NM residents are conservative , yet not one representative at the federal level. its taxation without representation in NM. the state is a one party rule cluster farck. Here comes the 30 day session to further repress and regulate the citizen.
Hope Trump can hold Government funds from this state. Besides New Mexico has a lot of money. 🇺🇸
If NM claims to be such a paramount of virtue in its elections why wont the secretary of state in NM turn over our voter rolls information as requested by the feds to check for fraud. because NM is a fraud, thats why. Cesar, its the 30 day Oppression Session up at the Clown House in Santa Fe.
Ronbo, NM wont turn its SNAP benefits enrollment lists to the feds either. feds not allowed to see how corrupt that system is either. why does NM have to hide everything ? is that democrat transparency ?
A $700,000 toilet tells you all you need to know about the corruption in New Mexico! Not to mention all the illegals that flood our state. Yet elections are secured??? They tried redistricting NM so the rat Democrats can stay in power here. There’s no way MLG and Tiny Tim were elected fairly. Literally everyone here knows that it was all rigged. I hope Trump brings the law down hard on NM and all the clown politicians here.
in 1964, my Dad was the Demo Chair in Los Alamos, so he carted me around to rallys and we were behind the scenes. There was a Democrat candidate that the Democratic Party did not want to have elected, but didn’t want the negative press. A prominent figure in the party – I won’t mention who – said, ‘Don’t worry, he won’t get elected. We found a ballot box floating in the Rio Grande.” So I guess we have always had election integrity 🙂
What President Trump said is true. The elections are rigged and NM sucks because of the elected POS in power don’t care about the people they only care about themselves. The medical sucks as well. F TIM KELLER. GABE AND MICHELLE HAALAND AS WELL AS THE REST
The cheating has been ongoing in NM, unchecked! for decades and Pres. Trump first brought it to light in 2020 though a lawsuit demanding to see absentee ballots. Our Secy of State ignored subpoenas and the rest is history. Now he’s shining light on us again.
The time to fight for transparency in our elections is when a NM Republican candidate is told they lost their particular election. The Republican never demands to see the ballots for duplicates, bogus addresses, voter rolls, etc. They just walk away and accept defeat.
Most recent example is Darren White. He was told he lost by 17 points and he conceded that same evening. The Dem Party counts the votes, tells us we lost and we believe them. Hmmm.
With all due respect, Amy Barela says all the right things, but unfortunately until our NM Republican Party starts sniffing around and contesting results of our elections, we are toast. When I’ve brought this to their attention over the years, I’m told it would cost too much money. My response continues to be, ‘we can’t afford to NOT demand an audit!’
I just got a forbidden block on your website just because I said to do away with the filibuster and pass the SAVE Acr but I said “k*** the filibuster. Where are our 1st amendment rights to free speech when you can’t even say that?