Trump Ratchets Up Talk of Taking Over Elections
Policy
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February 4, 2026
It’s one of several signs that Trump knows his party is in deep trouble in the upcoming midterm elections.
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office
(Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
The Justice Department’s seizure of 2020 voting records in Fulton County, Georgia, remains a frightening and confusing exercise in using federal agencies to try to validate Donald Trump’s false claim that he won re-election that year, carrying Georgia, even though even state Republican officials have certified that he lost the state by more than 11,000 votes. Trump followed up the FBI raid by insisting that “Republicans” should “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, during a podcast interview with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. “Republicans should say, ‘We want to take power,’” he said. “We should resume voting, voting in at least 15 states. Republicans should nationalize voting.” Any attempt to “nationalize” electoral processes would be unconstitutional; it is clearly the responsibility of the States. But note that Trump specifically said one party, his own, should take over. This is about as fascist as it’s ever been.
While spokesperson Karoline Leavitt tried to claim that Trump was only referring to the SAVE Act, which would require Americans to prove their citizenship to register to vote, the president himself continued to insist it was about much more than that. Speaking to a group of Republican lawmakers gathered as he signed legislation ending a brief government shutdown, “I want elections to be honest, and if a state can’t have an election, I think the people behind me should do something.” »
It’s one of several signs that Trump knows his party is in deep trouble in the upcoming midterm elections. Remarkably, many Republican leaders have said they disagree with Trump’s suggestion that Republicans take control of the election. “I am not in favor of federalizing elections,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters. “That’s not what the Constitution says about elections,” Sen. Rand Paul told MS Now.
As Trump’s House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed doubts about his party’s ability to take control of the election, he echoed the president’s false claims about Democratic voter fraud. “We had three Republican candidates in the House who were ahead on Election Day in the last election cycle, and every time a new batch of ballots came in, they magically diminished until their lead was lost,” Johnson told reporters. “This seems fraudulent at first glance. Can I prove it? No.”
That’s right, Mike. You can’t prove it, because it’s not true.
Yet there is no doubt that Trump is so concerned about the midterm elections that he is looking for ways to manipulate the process (rather than abandoning the cruel policies that make Republicans so unpopular). Trump suggested canceling the midterm elections altogether. He has proposed banning mail-in voting entirely and decertifying voting equipment he doesn’t trust, believing a smaller, more constrained electorate would skew toward Republicans. The administration has sued states, including Minnesota, for access to voter rolls. Just yesterday, Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast: “We’re going to have ICE surround the polling places…We will never allow an election to be stolen again.” »
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Trump also sought ways to take custody of ballots and voting records away from local election officials. Democracy Docket founder and voting rights attorney Mark Elias believes the seizure of Fulton County ballots last week “was in part an attempt to figure out the logistics of how this might happen in the future.”
We still don’t know exactly what led to the Georgia ballot seizure, or why Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was part of it (she appears to have been quietly sidelined from real intelligence concerns). Grand jury reportedly investigating Fulton County election process; At Davos, Trump suggested that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.” Even stranger was the news that Trump spoke to Gabbard after the raid and used her phone to address the agents who made the seizure and thank them for their work.
On one level, Fulton County’s exercise may be meaningless because the 2020 results have been certified and President Joe Biden has served his term. But if the Justice Department can find a basis (however flimsy) to seize ballots five years later, it’s not clear what would prevent it from seizing ballots after an election. Marc Elias says the strange show of force in Georgia should prompt Democrats to take Trump “seriously and literally” about his plans to prevent voting in the upcoming election. CNN reports that Democratic election officials are considering possible federal interference in the midterms, including the possibility of using ICE and other agencies to intimidate voters.
On the other hand, some people (including myself, from time to time) worry that exaggerating the threat of Republican Party interference might lead some Democrats, especially alienated and infrequent voters, to throw up their hands and assume the solution is ready. But Trump’s increasingly bold and strident comments about the need to ensure the Republican Party wins the next election serve to send a signal to his true believers that any idea, no matter how crazy, is welcome, given the party’s dire political situation. We cannot afford to ignore it.
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