Let’s begin with the obvious: Donald Trump is out to rig the midterm elections.
We know this because the president commits many of his illegal acts in broad daylight.
For the past year, Trump has revved up his election-tampering efforts by throwing everything at the proverbial wall.
He called for nationalizing elections, pushed to redraw election maps, slashed funding for election security, moved to restrict voting, targeted election workers, rewarded election deniers, and continued to repeat baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was fixed.
Trump even mused about canceling the November midterms. The White House said it was a joke, but his track record indicates otherwise.
Trump has ignored court orders, trampled presidential norms, and even refused to uphold the Constitution. He has cheated at everything, including the draft, golf, taxes, and marriage, so why not elections?
If the Great Experiment in self-government that the founders began 250 years ago is to continue, we need free and fair elections. But Trump is working feverishly to tilt the playing field to ensure Republicans win.
Last summer, he pushed GOP lawmakers in Texas to take the rare step of redrawing congressional maps in the middle of the decade to add more Republican seats.
Lawmakers in other red states, including Florida, Ohio, and Missouri, followed Trump’s blatant call for gerrymandering. Some blue states, like California, moved to do the same to offset the Republican scheme, sparking an undemocratic arms race.
The U.S. Supreme Court joined in by further obliterating the Voting Rights Act that previously provided for majority-minority districts. With that safeguard dismantled, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama carved up Black majority districts to eliminate Democratic seats.
Polls indicate deep dissatisfaction with Trump and Republicans, who control the House and Senate. He fears hearings and investigations into his corruption, incompetence, and self-dealing if Democrats take control of either chamber.
“If we don’t win the midterms … I’ll get impeached,” Trump said earlier this year.
Hence, the all-out attack on the election system.
Trump called for the federal government to seize control of elections — even though the Constitution put the states in charge.
He demanded the end of mail-in voting — even though presidents do not have the power to change voting laws.
Trump signed an executive order that would require voters to show proof of citizenship and that all mail-in ballots be received by the time polls closed — moves that were blocked last month by a federal judge, but the president remains relentless.
This week, Trump’s Justice Department threatened criminal charges against Pennsylvania’s top election officials if they let noncitizens vote. Other states received a similar warning, even though the issue is exceedingly rare and already illegal.
But Trump’s baseless rhetoric helps to sow distrust in elections — something he has done throughout his tumultuous decade in politics.
Trump has demonstrated he will cross any line. As president, he incited an insurrection as part of a broad conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential results — an act of treachery that has earned its place in infamy.
Trump was criminally indicted for his monthslong effort to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power, but the charges were dropped after he returned to the White House and assumed control of the U.S. Department of Justice.
To this day, Trump refuses to admit he lost the 2020 presidential race, despite producing no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud and abusing the legal system by mounting 60 failed election cases before state and federal judges.
In fact, Trump is still seeking to overturn the 2020 results.
In February, he ordered Tulsi Gabbard, the then-director of national intelligence, to attend an FBI search of election facilities in Georgia, where Trump lost in 2020.
The FBI recently assigned more than 200 agents to search for election fraud in Georgia, six years after exhaustive state and federal investigations found none.
During a ballyhooed visit to Arizona to discuss election security, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem couldn’t cite a single case of election fraud.
But a Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee investigation did find top Trump campaign officials had extensive contacts with Russian operatives during the 2016 election.
For all of Trump’s bluster about rigged elections, he remains the poster child for election interference. Now, he is willing to undermine national security to get the election results he wants. He demanded states change election rules, such as requiring voter identification, or risk losing federal terrorism prevention funds.
Trump also put his political gain above the public’s pain. He refused to sign a landmark bipartisan bill designed to lower housing costs until Congress passed legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters.
Trump has taken other steps recently to weaken election security.
One directive disbanded an FBI task force created to combat foreign influence in U.S. elections, and another crippled the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that Trump created.
The moves come as Russia, China, and Iran ramp up efforts to meddle in U.S. elections, just as they did during Trump’s victories in 2016 and 2024.
Before Jan. 6, 2021, it was hard to imagine a sitting president inciting a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol, attacked police, defecated in offices, and looked to hang the vice president.
So, how much further will Trump go to get his desired election results?
There is no bottom.
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