Trump Will Lose His Relentless War on the Constitution and His Campaign to Steal the 2026 Election

Trump treats the Constitution like an obstacle to overcome.

His arrogance and ignorance about the Nation’s charter were again demonstrated in his absurd claims in February that the Republicans “should take over the voting in at least — many, 15 places” and that the “Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Trump’s suggestion that a political party should set the rules for our elections is plainly unconstitutional. But no matter how many times Trump is shown that he has no power over the rules for our elections, he keeps pushing lawless ideas.

Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday that would allow the federal government to determine who can vote by mail. It is also plainly unconstitutional, just like his first executive order on voting, issued in March 2025, which was blocked by the courts. (The new order has already been challenged in court).

The Founders recognized the need to protect our elections from a king-like figure when they wrote the Constitution. They gave only the states and Congress the authority to set the rules for our elections. The Constitution gave no role to the president or the executive branch.

Trump appears intensely afraid of the Democrats taking control of the House and possibly the Senate in the November elections. He has said the House will impeach him, and he may well be right. In any event, the Trump administration will face nonstop investigations and subpoenas if this happens.

That’s why Trump is doing everything he can think of to steal the midterm elections – the Constitution be damned (see his voting executive orders).

He pressured red states to redistrict mid-decade (highly unusual) to get more Republican House seats. This apparently has backfired and Republicans are probably facing a wash.

Trump champions the SAVE America Act, in hopes it will suppress Democratic votes and elect Republicans. Trump is so obsessed with passing this legislation that he threatened last month not to sign any other bills until the Act is sent to him for signature. He still has not received it.

He even demanded that Senate Republicans overturn the filibuster rule to pass the House-passed Act, but that currently does not seem possible. (There may be an attempt to pass some of the lesser provisions of the Act in a reconciliation bill.)

To help prevent Democrats from winning elections, Trump has placed election deniers in key administration positions. According to the New York Times, “[O]fficials have been put into positions across the federal government, at the White House and in agencies where they could play a role in undermining the midterm elections and the 2028 presidential cycle.”

For example, in January, the FBI seized the 2020 presidential voting records in Fulton County, Georgia based on a bogus referral by a leading election denier, Kurt Olson, who is Trump’s Director of Election Security and Integrity. But Trump is facing pushback here, too. Fulton County is suing to get its files back, and one of its attorneys has pointed out that this effort, if not stopped, could become a precedent to seize ballots during future elections.

Trump’s schemes go on and on. The Justice Department has demanded that states send the administration their voting rolls. This has been met with widespread resistance by states, leading DOJ to sue 29 states to obtain the rolls. This information could easily be misused by the administration to block Democratic voters and tilt elections to Republican candidates.

The deployment of ICE officers to the airports needs to be viewed also as another test run, perhaps for stationing ICE personnel at polling places, where they could intimidate and harass potential voters and disrupt the voting process.

Why then will Trump fail to steal the 2026 congressional elections?

The American people for one.

Citizens will not stand for it. Turnout for this election is likely to override any attempts to manipulate the election results. Highly successful efforts like the No Kings movement could also mobilize huge numbers of volunteers to monitor and protect the voting polls.

There is also a wide array of highly skilled and experienced attorneys ready to file lawsuits immediately to protect the integrity of elections. In 2020, for example, three former Solicitors General, led by WilmerHale partner Seth Waxman, built an army of lawyers who played a central role in preventing Trump’s effort to steal the presidential election.

Finally, there are numerous lower court judges who have repeatedly demonstrated they are not intimidated by Trump’s bullying tactics. Judges will be ready to stop Trump from running roughshod over our laws and Constitution in the coming election. While the Supreme Court has often shown deference to Trump, most lower court decisions will never reach the Supreme Court.

So, buckle up. It’s going to be a battle. And we are going to win.

Free and fair elections will prevail in 2026.

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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.