US President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to "take over" voting in another escalation of his administration's attempts to overhaul how elections are run ahead of the pivotal midterms.

In the United States, elections are administered by state authorities, not the federal government.

"The Republicans should say: 'we want to take over, we should take over the voting,'" Trump told Dan Bongino, the former deputy director of the FBI, during a podcast appearance.

Trump said Republicans "ought to nationalise the voting" in 15 places, though he did not specify where.

During the interview with Bongino, Trump reiterated his false claim of having won the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden.

The midterm elections set for November are shaping up to be a challenge to the Republican majority in Congress as tough immigration police operations – which left two people dead in January in Minneapolis – are facing growing pushback as the cost of living weighs on households.

The latest comments come just a week after the FBI carried out a search at an election center in Georgia, at the heart of unfounded fraud allegations during the 2020 presidential race.

In a letter to lawmaker, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Monday she was present at the raid at Trump's request and that her attendance was within her authority.

Top Democrats ⁠on the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees had called for Gabbard to brief ‍their panels on why she was present at the raid and raised concerns about her presence.

Gabbard also said that while visiting the FBI field office in Atlanta, she "facilitated a brief phone call" for Trump to thank FBI agents for their work on the probe, a departure from law ‌enforcement norms.

Trump has also encouraged Republican-led states to redraw electoral maps to favor his party.

In what analysts have pointed to as evidence of voters' growing disenchantment with the Republican Party, a Democratic candidate won a state Senate seat on Saturday in a traditionally Republican stronghold in Texas.

That followed a series of Democratic Party wins with New Jersey and Virginia electing Democratic governors in autumn and left-wing Zohran Mamdani sweeping to power in New York City's mayoral election in November.

Trump was indicted in 2023 by federal prosecutors and by the state of Georgia for illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, won by Biden. Those cases were dropped following his election in 2024 to a second term. (AFP/Reuters)