Ahead of this year’s US midterm elections, President Donald Trump is intensifying his attacks on the electoral system, from calls for his Republican party to “nationalize” voting to his repeated fabrications of a rigged election.
The most recent proposal from Trump, who continues to deny that Democrat Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, is to transfer election management authority from several US states to the federal government.
“We want to take over,” the Republicans ought to declare. We ought to take over the voting process in at least 15 locations. This week, Trump told podcaster and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, “The Republicans should nationalize the voting.”
Democrats denounced his outrageous remarks, which came as Republicans risk losing control of Congress in the midterm elections on November 3. Trump’s approval ratings for his second term are low, according to polls, and Republicans have lost a number of municipal races.
However, Trump has intensified his long-standing but refuted allegations of massive voter fraud and his demand that he must address it.
When questioned about his remarks regarding nationalizing elections on Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do them anyway.”
In a Wednesday interview with NBC News, Trump pursued the issue, claiming that “there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt.”
Elections “can’t be done properly and timely, then something else has to happen,” he continued.
“No debate”—Trump’s remarks have raised concerns that he will, and not for the first time, violate the US Constitution.
Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School, told AFP that “the Constitution clearly says that states are the ones that do the running” of elections. “This is not up for debate.”
Levitt, who served in the administrations of Joe Biden and Barack Obama, stated that this was a “separation of powers” and a “anti-corruption measure,” in addition to the enormous size of the United States.
However, Trump has remained unrepentant in his efforts to alter American voting patterns, and he has publicly threatened to be impeached a third time if Republicans lose in November.
Despite the courts’ confirmation of the 2020 US presidential election’s legality, the 79-year-old is still certain that it was rigged against him.
“The election was rigged. At the January Davos meeting, Trump told foreign leaders, “Everyone now knows that.” “People will soon face consequences for their actions.”
Since taking office again last year, billionaire Trump has stretched presidential power to previously unheard-of heights. Now, he is using every tool at his disposal to make amends for perceived wrongs.
As part of a contentious investigation into his 2020 election defeat in the southern state, the FBI confiscated hundreds of ballot boxes and other materials in Georgia on January 28.
Unusually, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s head of National Intelligence, who is supposed to be focused on foreign threats, kept a close eye on the raid.
“Cast doubt”
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department has sued to seize vote records in almost 20 states.
False allegations of widespread illegal voting by unauthorized migrants have been made by Trump’s administration.
UCLA legal professor Rick Hasen told AFP that these acts were “part of a broader strategy to, at least, cast doubt on the validity of the upcoming elections.”
He urged civil society organizations to be vigilant, saying, “At worst, it suggests he may try to use the federal government to actually interfere in how states run elections in 2026.”
Trump’s government is allegedly “looking to exhaust our nation with these deplorable and unconstitutional antics in hopes that we will grow tired and concede,” according to the NAACP, which has long advocated for Black people’s civil rights.
More seriously, some of the US president’s detractors worry that he would deploy the military or even law enforcement to sway the next election.
This has been suggested by some of Trump’s most ardent followers.
Steve Bannon, a first-term Trump advisor and a key figure in his “Make America Great Again” organization, declared on Tuesday that “we’re going to have ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) surround the polls come November.”
“And we will never again permit an election to be stolen, no matter how much you complain, cry, or throw your toys out of the pram.”
