Hours before President Trump’s televised speech Thursday, in which he warned that U.S. elections are vulnerable to foreign interference and claimed China meddled in the 2020 election, White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson told the hosts of Newsmax’s Wake Up America that the President will continue to demand that Congress pass the full SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, plus voter ID at the polls.
Jackson: “I saw a tweet yesterday from Olive Garden, of all places, that in order to take advantage of their never-ending pasta pass, you have to show photo ID. I thought, that’s weird, Olive Garden takes pasta pass security more seriously than Democrats are taking election security.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson: “I saw a tweet yesterday from Olive Garden that in order to take advantage of their never-ending pasta pass, you have to show photo ID. I thought, that’s weird, Olive Garden takes pasta pass security more seriously than Democrats take… pic.twitter.com/O1CEFNcM9o
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 17, 2026
Jackson’s comment is being met with criticism from Democrats including influencer Joanne “Jo” Carducci, who replied: “They’re not asking for a [expletive] passport and a marriage certificate, you dumb [expletive].”
Carducci added, “It was the darkest of times, it was the dumbest of times.”
Another critic replied: “Would somebody please counter these jokers with the fact that ID verification-such as a driver’s license – is not the same as proof of citizenship (passport, birth certificate)? Please?!!?!” And another noted: “Pasta pass isn’t a constitutional right.”
Trump’s speech presented a case he has made numerous times since entering electoral politics — even after his surprise victory in 2016, Trump asserted that only a corrupted election process — millions of “illegal” votes, he claimed — had kept him from winning the popular vote as well as the electoral college. Thursday’s speech was accompanied by the release of new documents that critics say did not support his claims — and in some cases did the opposite.
The criticism came from both sides, with Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsberg saying of Trump’s claims about China and U.S. election vulnerability: “This feels a little bit like an own goal. The administration has cut back on the cyber security agency, CISA, and the Department of Justice outfit that helps states so that, if there is a problem with the 2026 election, it will be in large part because the defenses that are provided by the federal government to the states to stop that activity have been drastically cut back.”