Trump's Strategies for Sabotaging the Upcoming Election
The Brennan Center for Justice has released a report highlighting a concerted strategy by the Trump administration to subvert future federal elections in 2026 and 2028. This strategy, according to the report, involves a combination of actions by the White House that aim to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections.
Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center, has expressed concern about the unprecedented intrusion by the White House into the way elections work. The report outlines that this intrusion includes installing loyalists in key Department of Justice positions, issuing executive orders that centralize election-related decision-making within the White House, and attempting to unilaterally change state and local election laws.
One of the key components of this strategy is the centralization of control over election policy within the White House through executive orders. This aim is to override established local and state election procedures. The report also emphasizes the intimidation of election workers, officials, and supporting organizations through threats and legal pressure as another component of this strategy.
The administration has also dismantled the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its work to protect elections from interference, including hacks targeting election systems. Dismantling CISA could make election systems more vulnerable to attacks, which the administration could then claim as evidence that the election's integrity has been undermined and use as a pretext to seize voting machines or interfere with the results.
Trump has a history of making baseless claims about election fraud and has attempted to pressure election officials to change the results of elections. In 2020, he attempted to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and local election officials in Wayne County, Michigan, to change the election results.
The report also mentions the possibility of the administration using non-compliance with Trump's executive order as propaganda claiming the results from certain states are fraudulent or as a pretext to declare an election-related emergency and seize voting machines.
The Brennan Center emphasizes that these combined moves constitute an unprecedented intrusion by the federal executive branch into election administration and pose new challenges to the integrity of U.S. elections, requiring coordinated resistance from states, officials, and advocacy groups.
The second Trump administration is staffed with people who helped Trump lie about the 2020 election, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, and Ed Martin. Trump has initiated efforts to subvert upcoming federal elections in 2026 and 2028, including issuing a sweeping executive order aiming to allow the president to directly set state election law, despite the president having almost no constitutional role or legal power in the administration of elections.
Trump has a history of making baseless claims about election fraud and has claimed every election since 2012 that did not go Republicans' way was rigged with illegal votes and fraud. The report warns that Trump's efforts to subvert upcoming federal elections in 2026 and 2028 could potentially disrupt, undermine, or subvert the outcomes in various ways. The Brennan Center aims to raise awareness about the risks posed by a White House that is determined to undermine elections, encouraging institutional actors and the public to work together to counter these efforts.
- The unprecedented intrusion by the White House into the way elections work, as highlighted in the Brennan Center's report, extends to politics, war-and-conflicts, and crime-and-justice, as the administration has dismantled the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its work to protect elections, opening the door for potential attacks.
- The report further emphasizes that policy-and-legislation is also affected, with the second Trump administration staffed with individuals who played a role in lying about the 2020 election, and the president initiating efforts to subvert upcoming federal elections in 2026 and 2028, including issuing an executive order aiming to allow the president to directly set state election law.
- In the realm of general-news and politics, the Trump administration's strategy to subvert future federal elections is causing concern, with the report warning that Trump's efforts could potentially disrupt, undermine, or subvert the outcomes and requiring coordinated resistance from states, officials, and advocacy groups.
