Forced his hand

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order authorising sanctions against individuals or countries found to have meddled in American elections.

He has faced months of criticism for not doing enough to prevent potential foreign interference in future votes.

The order comes with mid-term elections just weeks away.

  alJazeera

The White House hopes the order will help dispel the notion that Trump has allowed election meddling to go unchallenged.

Trump claimed in the written statement that is "implementing the strongest measures to date of any United States President to protect our electoral system."

  CNN

Of course. We always assume that whatever he does is the biggest, the best, the most or all three.

In the works for months, the order will allow the director of National Intelligence, with input from other intelligence agencies, to assess and identify foreign actors responsible for election meddling, and direct the Treasury Department to apply sanctions.

Then he'll just have to be sure he installs a director who refuses to recognize Russian interference.

The entire process, from detection to imposing sanctions, could take up to 90 days -- including two 45-day assessment periods within the intelligence community and the broader administration. But the executive branch, including the President, will have the final say in whether sanctions will be applies.

Isn't that handy that we're less than 90 days out from midterms?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Why the sanctions?