By Todd Lassa
President Trump’s Truth Social posts last Monday threatening yet another Constitution-bending executive order pretty much got buried by news of the rushed European Union backing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that same day, which had followed a Trump meeting in Alaska the previous Friday with dictator/President Vladimir Putin that seemed to go Moscow’s way. Not to mention other top-of-the-page news including Israel’s impending takeover of the Gaza Strip, impending release of Epstein ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview with Justice Department Deputy Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche, the administration’s attacks on the Federal Reserve and, of course, the Texas state legislature’s unusual mid-decade gerrymander to give Trump five additional Republican US congressmembers he demanded for the midterms.
Those Truth Social Posts last Monday:
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ very Expensive and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election. …
“WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
Superfluous capitalization as always, courtesy Trump. Reporting on Trump’s proposed EO – whether or not it has any legal legs -- courtesy The Hill.
Let’s tie this in with the Texas legislature’s redistricting (pending obvious legal challenges in the months to come) with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard (now with firearms!) and takeover of the Metropolitan Police in Washington, D.C., and this clampdown on mail-in – sorry, MAIL-IN – ballots and consider how Trump could use this to suppress voting in large, urban areas.
Consider how Trump repeated his “Big Lie” well into the 2024 election campaign season, the one he won with a majority popular vote, that his 2020 loss had something to do with all those big city ballot deliveries in such swing states as Michigan and Wisconsin coming in mysterious deliveries well past midnight.
In recent days, Trump indicated that after National Guard intervention in Washington, D.C., other cities could be next, first in Chicago according to The Washington Post, then New York City, Baltimore and potentially other cities with Democratic mayors.
Trump’s federal takeover of Washington officially has a 30-day limit. Among the 50 states, governors in each hold authority to call up their National Guard in the case of a true emergency (not being a state, the District of Columbia is the exception here), but there is much speculation that the Trump White House will challenge in courts its limits in this matter.
Take that a step further: If lawsuits challenging the president’s authority to call in any sort of federal troops make their way up through appeals, quite possibly to the Supreme Court and timing-wise into next year, it would not be a stretch to see US troops occupying Democratic-led cities well into 2026 and even to the November midterms. Limiting crowds of voters at such polling stations would only affect districts in which a substantial population in surrounding suburban areas dilute the urban vote, of course.
But if nothing else, such a “trial run” in the 2026 midterms could serve as a testbed for the 2028 presidential election, for which suppression of urban polls could affect the Electoral College vote outcome in many states.
Is this paranoia? Conspiracy theory? Eight months ago, we would have said “yes” to these questions. In the months since, the Trump White House’s often successful attempts to steamroll the legislative and judiciary makes this a rational, necessary warning.