Friends,
During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released yesterday by Dan Bongino, Trump’s former deputy F.B.I. director, Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states. (He didn’t say which 15, but the context was obvious: He was talking about states he lost in 2020 that are dominated by Democrats.)
Trump asserted there are “states that are so crooked … that I won that show I didn’t win,” and again baselessly claimed that undocumented immigrants were allowed to vote illegally in 2020. “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Trump then teased that there will be “some interesting things come out” of Georgia.
We all remember Trump trolling for “enough” votes in Georgia to reverse the outcome in 2020. Last week, the FBI executed a search warrant at a warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia (at the heart of right-wing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election) authorizing agents to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election, voting machine tabulator tapes, images produced during the ballot count and voter rolls from that year.
The day after the Georgia search, Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, met with some of those FBI agents — reportedly at Trump’s personal request. Trump himself, on speaker phone, asked questions about their investigation.
This isn’t Georgia in Russia. This is the state of Georgia in America. What the hell is Gabbard — who’s supposed to be worried about foreign meddling in our elections —doing in our Georgia?
It doesn’t seem accidental that Pam Bondi’s “Weaponization Working Group” also convened yesterday, and pushed the Justice Department for “results in the next two months.” The Working Group’s goal is to figure out “how to reenergize probes” into federal and local officials who investigated Trump’s actions.
My friends, you know what’s going on as well as I do.
Trump is justifiably worried about the 2026 midterms. His polls are tanking. The Epstein files aren’t looking good. The economy is shitty. At this rate, Democrats are likely to sweep both chambers of Congress.
If that happens, starting in January 2027 Trump will face a constant barrage of hearings, inquiries, and even (as he’s said several times) impeachment votes. It’s not a stretch to predict that the Senate might convict him of impeachable offenses — in which case he’s out on his ass.
So Trump figures that now is the time — some nine and a half months before the midterm elections — to get Bondi’s Justice Department, the FBI, and even Gabbard’s national intelligence apparatus geared up for a “take over” of state voting.
Recall that in March, Trump signed an executive order that required documentary proof of citizenship in order to vote and that all mail ballots be received by the time polls close on Election Day. The courts have largely stopped that order from being implemented.
Then in August, Trump said he would sign an executive order that would “help bring HONESTY” to this year’s midterm elections. Trump posted: “Remember, the states are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.”
Hello?
Let’s pause for a moment to consider the United States Constitution. It gives states — not the federal government — the power over elections. States, in turn, have delegated much of the actual work to county and municipal officials in thousands of precincts across the country.
While Congress has exercised some power over elections — creating a national Election Day, requiring states to ensure that voter rolls are accurate, and outlawing discrimination in voting (the Supreme Court has already eviscerated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and seems now on the verge of gutting Section 2) — states run elections under their own laws and procedures.
Would Trump’s Republican lackeys in Congress go along with a putative “takeover” of state election processes that “nationalized” the voting?
Some might, but not nearly enough. Their margins in the House and Senate are too small, many of them are already fighting for re-election in districts or states that are shifting against Trump, and in recent weeks several have voted contrary to what Trump wanted (i.e. the Epstein files).
Could Trump merely declare a takeover by Executive Order? He could try, but not even his pliant Supreme Court would go along with it.
So what’s he up to?
Think a many-pronged strategy involving Justice, FBI, CIA, and also Homeland Security and possibly the Department of Defense.
Imagine that over the next nine and a half months Bondi, Patel, Gabbard, Noem, and Hegseth all get to work — with the objective of causing enough Americans to worry about voting in the midterms, or doubt that their votes will count in the midterms, that they don’t bother.
There’ll create a steady drum-beat of allegations and investigations into voting, accompanied FBI and Justice Department seizures of voter rolls. At the same time, ICE and Border Patrol raids ramp up. All of it is centered on American cities where most Democratic voters live.
Is it too far-fetched to believe that this is Trump’s strategy? He’ll bypass Congress and the Supreme Court. Instead, he’ll unleash the investigative, enforcement, and police arms of the executive branch to intimidate Democratic voters — or cause them to become so cynical about the whole voting process that they don’t vote?
I think this is exactly what he’s attempting to do.
And the appropriate response is to fight back. All of us — including Democratic leaders — must say over and over again: You have a right to vote. Trump can’t take it away. Your vote counts. This is your country.
And every city and county or state where Trump and his goons are trying to seize voter rolls or otherwise mess with the process must sue the hell out of the Trump regime.
What do you think?
This post has been syndicated from Robert Reich, where it was published under this address.