Trump to target election meddling with new sanctions order

Washington: The White House looks set to toughen up against foreign meddling in U.S. elections. That's according to sources, who exclusively told Reuters an executive order could be signed by President Donald Trump as early as Wednesday.
One source, a U.S. official, said the order would slap sanctions on any attempt to interfere in national elections. The 2018 U.S. midterms are less than two months away and authorities are pre-empting foreign attacks on the elections based on U.S. intelligence.
The executive order is the latest effort by the Trump administration to look tough on security at the polls, even as Trump himself has blasted the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Trump has come under fire from both Democrats and Republicans, who accuse the president of taking a weak stance on accusations of Russian interference.
Donald Trump said, "President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today." Trump stunned the world during a summit with Vladimir Putin in July, seeming to take the word of the Russian president over his own intelligence agencies.
Trump said, "I don't see any reason why it would be Russia." That sparked a political storm he tried to calm a day later. He said, "I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'". Congress already passed a Russia sanctions bill last year, in one of Washington's most aggressive moves to punish Moscow.