We Will Keep Shouting It From the Rooftops: Trump Plans to Rig the Midterms

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Donald Trump has never liked taking “No” for an answer. 

When he heard “No” from women who didn’t want him to grope them, he did it anyway (and joked about it later). When he heard “No” from the “adults in the room” who kept the president from acting on his basest instincts during his first term, he replaced them with yes-people in the second. And when he heard “No” from the National Archives and Records Administration, he tried to hide the classified documents he had stashed at Mar-a-Lago. 

But never in his life had Trump heard a “No” as resounding as that delivered by the 81,282,916 Americans who voted him out of office in 2020.

Unable to deal with that kind of rejection, he has been on a mission to destroy American democracy ever since. 

And, not to take away from the anguish he caused the women he bragged about sexually assaulting, those duped by “Trump University,” the taxpayers who paid the price for the fraud of the Trump Organization, and the many other victims of the president’s various machinations, his attack on democracy is Trump’s most insidious crime. 

We believe it is imperative that we keep talking about it because — in an effort to prevent another election defeat resulting in the kind of accountability that the most lawless administration in history fears above all else — Trump and the entire GOP are about to rig the midterms in ways that were previously unimaginable. 

In this moment, it is crucial to find the right words for what is happening, and this is where much of the media is failing. 

For example, both The New York Times and The Washington Post published articles this week on what the president is trying to do. 

Both are important stories because they show how Trump and the GOP are trying to rig the midterms. But, instead of unequivocally sounding the alarm, each of them fails to convey the urgency of the moment by hiding behind phrases like “appears to,” or not spelling out immediately how unconstitutional these plans are. 

Here is the Times:

Trump’s Push for Election Power Raises Fears He Will ‘Subvert’ Midterms

The president appears to be undermining Americans’ faith in the outcome, at a moment when Republicans face an uphill climb to keep control of Congress.

And here is the Post:

Trump, Seeking Executive Power Over Elections, Is Urged to Declare Emergency

Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

Both are important stories because they show how Trump and the GOP are trying to rig the midterms. But, instead of unequivocally sounding the alarm, each of them fails to convey the urgency of the moment by hiding behind phrases like “appears to,” or not spelling out immediately how unconstitutional these plans are. 

The president doesn’t want to “unlock extraordinary powers over voting” any more than he wants to “tenderly caress the private parts of unsuspecting women.” 

Trump wants to rig the midterms, and he isn’t even shy about it. And neither are members of his administration and congressional Republicans.

This needs to be said… loudly and repeatedly. So, we will. 

But first, let’s go to someone else who likes to say things loudly and repeatedly. 

Here is Donald Trump lying to the American people during the State of the Union address on Tuesday:

Perhaps most importantly, I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act, to stop illegal aliens and others who are unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections. The cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant.  

None of this is true. 

There is no evidence that a substantial number of noncitizens vote in US elections. None. Zero. Zilch. 

Regular readers of this column know all about the SAVE Act (and its successor, the SAVE America Act). For everybody else, here is a refresher: 

If there is one piece of legislation that exemplifies today’s Republicans, then it is the SAVE Act. It is based on an unproven conspiracy theory, its stated purpose is obsolete, it does a bunch of stuff that would help the GOP suppress votes, and it is a perfect prop for demagoguery and xenophobia.

If you are unfamiliar with the SAVE Act, it is the legislation that makes something that is already illegal just as illegal.

Sounds dumb? Well, it is.

Naturally, Trump embraces it. And that would be bad enough. 

However, while the Big Lie was once a fringe conspiracy theory — albeit one propagated by the most powerful man on the planet that resulted in an unsuccessful coup — it is now firmly Republican dogma. 

So, let’s repeat it again: There is no evidence that a substantial number of noncitizens vote in US elections. None. Zero. Zilch. 

And why would they? It’s a crime with a massive downside (fines, imprisonment, deportation) and virtually no upside (a single additional vote for one candidate?). 

Conversely, there’s lots of evidence, including that compiled by red states, that shows that it is extraordinarily rare for any noncitizen to even try to register to vote (and when they do, it’s often in error, an honest mistake). 

One example we’ve repeatedly cited: An extensive audit conducted by Georgia’s Republican secretary of state found that out of 8,200,000 voter registrations in the Peach State, only 20 belonged to noncitizens. And there are lots of similar studies, from both red and blue states.

But it’s not only the lie about noncitizens voting; it’s all of Trump’s various accusations, many of which have had their day in court and have been disproven (at least the ones that are not too crazy even to fact-check). 

Simply put, there is no proof for any of it. There is, often enough, not even a shred of credible evidence.

Of course, we all know that Trump lives in (and peddles) an alternate reality, so GOP lawmakers must know this.

And yet, almost all of them are now going along with his Big Lie because their seats of power are at stake.

It makes us sad and angry, and hearing Trump talk about “sacred elections” is just gross because he’s trying to take a wrecking ball to them. 

It’s just as gross that Republicans are on board with it, and that the media are not doing enough to spell it out for the American people because they’re clinging to norms that this administration is shredding every day. 

Finally, it’s beyond frustrating to know that our warning will largely go unheard while milquetoast versions of it from the Times and the Post will be read much more widely (well, maybe not so much the Post anymore). 

That won’t stop us, of course. But it would be awfully nice if you could help out by sharing this column, signing up for one of our newsletters, and otherwise spreading the word among your family and friends, neighbors and colleagues. 

The “sacred promise” from all of us here at WhoWhatWhy is that we won’t ever let this drop and we’ll always call it just exactly what it is.