'Batshit Authoritarianism': Trump Allies Drafting Order to Give Him 'Extraordinary Power Over Voting'

A group of right-wing activists is crafting an executive order that would let President Donald Trump unilaterally ban mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the order being drafted by Trump allies would give him "extraordinary power over voting," even though the US Constitution explicitly gives individual states the powers to run their own elections.

An advocate for the order, Florida attorney Peter Ticktin, acknowledged in an interview with the Post that the Constitution does not give the president any role in shaping elections, but he said Trump needed to act to prevent China from supposedly interfering with American elections.

"Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” Ticktin said. "But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes. That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it."

The activists drafting the emergency order said that they are working in coordination with the White House, although the extent of any cooperation isn't clear.

However, the Post pointed to some evidence that the White House really is on board with such a strategy, such as the Trump administration's efforts to investigate his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden, which the president has long baselessly claimed was due to foreign interference from a number of nations, including China and Venezuela.

As the Post noted, "a 2021 intelligence review concluded that China considered efforts to influence the election but did not go through with them."

Additionally, Trump has publicly stated numerous times that he wants to completely do away with mail-in ballots and voting machines, both of which he has baselessly claimed are riddled with fraud.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the draft order was simply an attempt by the president's allies to block democratic accountability in future elections.

"We've been raising the alarm for weeks about President Trump’s attacks on our elections and now we’re seeing reports that outline how they may be planning to do it,” Warner told the Post. “This is a plot to interfere with the will of voters and undermine both the rule of law and public confidence in our elections."

Government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said that the drafted order was plainly unconstitutional and would fail in court.

"The Constitution gives states power over election law with oversight from Congress," CREW wrote in a social media post. "Notice who's missing? The president. Trump may try to cook up a sham national emergency to try to seize control of elections but it won't stand up to scrutiny."

MS NOW national security contributor Marc Polymeropoulos called the draft order "batshit authoritarianism" and cautioned that "this crazy shit is possible as Trump knows Congress is all but lost at this point in a free election."

"To save himself," Polymeropoulos added, "anything is possible."

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pointed to the Post report and warned, "Donald Trump’s plan to steal the 2026 midterm elections is already underway."

Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) accused Trump of "setting the stage to steal the midterm elections and set fire to our democracy," while vowing that Democrats would "fight for our democracy and safeguard the right to vote."