Trump Is Laying the Groundwork to Rig the 2026 Elections. It Won’t Work

President Trump is attempting the same scam and con job in 2026 that he tried in 2020.

That year, he claimed that Joe Biden and the Democrats were trying to steal the presidential election when, in fact, only Trump and his allies were trying to overturn the election results. According to USA TODAY, “Out of the 62 lawsuits filed challenging the presidential election, 61 have failed.”

Stopping a 2026 Trump Steal

Trump has made abundantly clear that he is prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure Republicans maintain control of Congress in 2026 – whether legal or illegal. As he said, if Democrats win the House, “I’ll get impeached.”

Last year, he issued an executive order that attempted to set new federal rules for the election process that were designed to tilt elections to Republicans. The measure was slapped down by a federal judge who stated, “Put simply, our Constitution does not allow the President to impose unilateral changes to federal election procedures.”

Last month Trump tried again, stating that he wanted the Republicans to “nationalize” the elections (unconstitutional) in fifteen “crooked states” (a lie). He claimed this was necessary because he had won the 2020 presidential election (another lie), which he obsessively claims every chance he gets.

Trump is likely to do more than he did in 2020. He could issue unlawful federal directives, use the DOJ, the FBI, and other agencies to try to intimidate voters, seize ballot boxes, and go to court to stop counting votes, among other possible moves.

The Forces that Will Challenge Any Trump Steal Effort

Trump has shown he is ready to use any means to steal or rig the 2026 congressional elections. If he tries, he will more than meet his match. There will be three key components in stopping a Trump steal: judges; lawyers; and concerned Americans.

Judges:

More than 600 lawsuits have been filed against Trump and his administration since January 2025; the Trump administration has lost more than 70 percent of the time when the court has taken any action

Lower court federal judges, particularly district court judges, have repeatedly recognized that the Trump administration ignores laws, ignores court orders, and ignores the Constitution. The Supreme Court, however, has been a different story.

The federal courts almost unanimously rejected the efforts of Trump and his followers to overturn the presidential results. Not even the Supreme Court supported his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential results. There is every reason to believe the nation’s federal judges, as in 2020, will reject any Trump effort to steal the coming congressional elections.

Lawyers:

Biden’s team of lawyers to defend against Trump in 2020 was organized and led by former Solicitor General Seth Waxman. He was joined by two other former Solicitors General, Donald Verilli, and the late Walter Dellinger. They were known as the Three Amigos and were joined on the legal team by many volunteer lawyers.

Biden’s own campaign lawyers were also key players led by Bob Bauer who said about the Three Amigos, “they were phenomenal.”

The Biden legal team won all but one minor case in defending Biden against Trump’s false claims. Former Solicitors General Waxman and Verrilli hopefully will again play lead roles in defending the 2026 congressional elections.

In 2025, a number of nonprofit groups staffed by highly skilled lawyers effectively fought the legal battles that challenged the abuses of Trump and his administration. In 2026, these groups will be on the front lines to defend against any Trump effort to steal the congressional elections.

The groups have included such organizations as the ACLU, American Oversight, the Brennan Center, the Campaign Legal Center, the Constitutional Accountability Center, CREW, Democracy Defenders Fund, Democracy Forward, the Elias Law Group, the Legal Defense Fund, the League of Women Voters, Protect Democracy and Public Citizen.

Concerned Americans:

The No Kings movement and the people of Minneapolis and Saint Paul have shown the power of peaceful Americans vigorously defending our democracy. Volunteers who show up to monitor the polling booths, help citizens get to the polls or otherwise vote, and other volunteer efforts will play an important role in preventing any Trump effort to steal the elections.

Any effort to steal or rig the 2026 congressional elections will fail if judges enforce the laws and the Constitution, lawyers act quickly to stop unlawful actions and Americans do their part to protect the right to vote. If that happens it will again be the voters who decide the election results, not Donald Trump.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.