Adrian Fontes: Trump is Making Threats about Next Election

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes outlined a multilevel attack by Trump on voting rights across the country. Fontes, who is the top Arizona elections official, spoke at the July 28, 2025, meeting of the Pima County Democratic Club.

“I’m not blowing smoke here. This is real. This is real,” Fontes emphasized. “Now, what do we do in that case? I tell him to pound sand, and we keep going.”

• The Trump Justice Department has launched an intimidation campaign against state election officials nationwide. The criminal division of the DOJ wants to conduct an interview with Fontes. See Trump’s DOJ wants states to turn over voter lists, election info.
• Trump has created an enemies list with 350 names, and Fontes said he is on it. Read List: Who Trump Has Targeted for Retribution.
• Trump forced mass layoffs at the federal agency that protects elections from cyber and physical threats. See Trump proposes major cut to CISA’s budget, citing false ‘censorship’ claims. “That was the greatest partner that we had. CISA was running to help election administrators across the country talk to each other.” He added, “The states get to run elections, and Congress gets a little input. We’ve seen this constant assault against voting rights, and every step of the way, folks like me have stood up and called “Bullshit” every single time.”
• Trump plans to bring criminal charges against state or local election officials, as reported in the New York Times. “We’ve already seen how they want to have a negative impact through the executive order, like threatening to send the Department of Justice to criminally prosecute folks who are involved in the election of 2020,” Fontes said.

“But when it comes to the duty of an election administrator, it is to guarantee and ensure that all voters have that fundamental right preserved, that one that we so cherish here as Americans. Now, the assaults that voting rights have suffered since the election in 2024 are massive,” Fontes said.

“Well before January, then-candidate Donald Trump said, “If you vote for me, you’re never going to have to vote again,” he said. “You won’t have to worry about it. He said it more than once.”

“Think about how ominous that is,” Fontes said.

“Essentially, the president is federalizing some of the most important rules of election administration. But the president can’t just make laws by fiat, and outside of the scope of what is constitutional, because Article One [of the US Constitution] is pretty plain.”

“People in political power would rather maintain the power that we Americans have over the political class. And so what I’m asking you to do is become uncomfortable,” Fontes said. “Because:

• “It’s not impolite to save democracy.
• “It’s not impolite to speak truth to power.
• “It’s not impolite to advocate for those families, particularly those young people who don’t have their own voices.
• “It’s not impolite to talk about folks in their later years who need the medication and the healthcare that they deserve.
• “It’s not impolite to talk about the fact that women don’t have total control over their own bodies, which they ought to.
• “It’s not impolite to speak to the notion that a lot of young people don’t know that they’ll be able to own a home and see the American dream as a wisp evaporating.”

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Keep talking about Jeffrey Epstein

“It’s not impolite to talk about these things. Please get out of your comfort zone because it’s that comfort that keeps everything moving along in a status quo. There is no disruption. There is no upheaval, and that means there’s no change. We must become uncomfortable.

“I see that happening. But I genuinely believe that if we don’t remove Jeffrey Epstein and this individual from office soon, we’re going to face that kind of issue. And I say it that way with every intention of being scandalous and salacious against this guy, because it deserves nothing less.”

“Nobody thought that it was going to be possible for us to kill USAID, which frankly keeps American interests overseas solid. It keeps our military members’ lives safe with that USAID cover. They have such a positive impact on the way this country is seen around the world. USAID is gone now, and all of that influence is gone too.

“And so the danger quotient goes way up. Nobody thought that we might be going to get into a trade war with Canada, for God’s sakes. For what? What’s the problem? Why any tariffs anywhere with anyone? Nobody ever thought that sort of thing was possible. Who would think the Marines are going to be deployed to Los Angeles?

It’s like the canary is dead. The coal mine is still poisonous.”

If we don’t see that already, we’re not paying attention. And those of us who have been calling it out from the beginning take no pleasure in being right.

And again, I will say, Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein, we cannot stop them. And there are some Democrats who are going to go down because of that, mark my words. But we are the party of accountability.”