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midterm elections
Trump Is Mounting an Authoritarian Takeover of Our Election System
Attempting to implement policies limiting mail voting or voting machines via executive order would be flagrantly illegal and flatly unconstitutional—a power grab.
Aug 21, 2025
After his Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump bragged that the dictator had backed one of his conspiracy theories. According to Trump, Putin said, “You can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting.” (You don’t need to be a former KGB agent to know how to woo our chief executive.)
Then on Monday, perhaps emboldened by his encounter with a real-life autocrat, Trump announced a major effort to seize control of American elections.
In a Truth Social post, he declared that he would sign “an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections” and “lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS.”
We’ve all grown used to the president’s wild claims about elections. We might be tempted to roll our eyes now, but we shouldn’t. It’s appalling.
If we do not act against these threats, free and fair elections in 2026 could be at stake. So, what can be done?
The order would likely purport to ban or seriously limit mail voting, a focus of Trump’s since 2020. To be clear, mail voting is a widely popular and long-standing practice used by about a third of citizens. Every state has well-tested security measures in place to ensure that the process is safe and secure.
Trump claimed in his post that we are the only country in the world that uses mail voting. Putin, whom he called a “smart guy,” allegedly told him that, but it is blatantly false. Dozens of countries use mail voting, including Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom. (And of course, Trump himself regularly votes by mail in Florida.)
The order could also target voting machines. “While we’re at it,” he said in the post, we should get rid of “Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES.” That’s nutty. Machines with a paper record (used by 98% of voters) are far more accurate and secure than, say, counting ballots by hand. Ironically, Trump’s blast came the same day that Newsmax paid $67 million to a voting machine company in a defamation suit arising from the last round of false claims about the 2020 election.
Attempting to implement any of these policies via executive order would be flagrantly illegal and flatly unconstitutional—a power grab. Already, earlier this year, Trump tried to seize control of elections with an executive order requiring Americans to produce a passport or another citizenship document to register to vote using the federal form. The Brennan Center and others sued, and judges blocked the worst part of that move. The new threatened executive order, too, could turn out to be vapor, essentially a malevolent press release.
But Trump’s post contained a chilling claim: “Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.”
This statement plainly repudiates the Constitution—the Elections Clause gives states and Congress the power to run elections. Presidents have no authority to rewrite election rules. In a democracy, the states are not personal agents of the president.
If successful, this executive order would be nothing short of an authoritarian takeover of our election system. Imagine the man who demanded that a state election official “find” him 11,780 votes in charge of “counting and tabulating the votes.”
This threat comes as federalized troops and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol the streets of Washington, DC. Last week, ICE agents massed outside a Democratic event on redistricting in California.
Again, Trump’s threatened executive order would be blatantly illegal and blocked by a court. But it’s still important to listen to what he’s saying. He’s making his goal—a federal takeover of elections—explicit. And while this particular tactic won’t work, it’s just one piece of the administration’s emerging, unmistakable campaign to undermine our elections, a drive that ranges from defunding election security programs to trying to gain access to state voter rolls.
Voters must have the final say in a democracy. If we do not act against these threats, free and fair elections in 2026 could be at stake. So, what can be done?
The courts must uphold the Constitution when it comes to elections, as they did with Trump’s earlier executive order.
State leaders and election officials must also fight back. They must stand firm in their right to oversee elections, continue to provide voters with options such as mail and early voting, resist illegal orders, and keep control over voting machines. The Brennan Center has published information about how to respond to requests to access sensitive data and machinery.
Ultimately, the integrity of the next election will be up to voters. We must all speak out against these moves to meddle with the vote. It’s harder to take over an election when everyone is watching.
Think again about Trump’s claim that states are his “agents” in tabulating the votes. Vladimir Putin’s great hero had something to say about that: “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how,” Joseph Stalin said, “but what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how.”
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Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Means Bigger Electric Bills for Millions
The elimination of tax credits for clean energy will have a disastrous impact on consumers... and potentially on the GOP’s chances in the midterms.
Jul 19, 2025
Millions of Americans across the country will receive higher electric bills because of President Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into law on July 4.
The culprit here is that the OBBB eliminated tax credits for solar and wind energy. According to research done by the group Energy Innovation, average electric rates could rise by an additional 18% by 2035. For an average household this translates into $170 a year. Some states will experience even larger increases in electric bills. For example, in Oklahoma, a state which generates a lot of its energy from wind, annual prices will go up as much as $540 a year.
Ironically, the increase in electric rates may well hit Republican states harder than their Democratic counterparts. The five biggest losers from the OBBB in terms of increased electric bills are Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. The conservative Washington Examiner points out:
With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act now law, there could be a spike in consumer energy bills in states represented by Republicans and handouts to blue-state residents. That is terrible news for everyday Americans and for members of the GOP hoping to hold on to their narrow majority in the Senate. However, it could have been much worse. In theory, it should have been easy for congressional Republicans to work with the White House on a spending plan that lowers prices and taxes with the added benefit of protecting vulnerable GOP senators in Iowa, Maine, and North Carolina. But because states generate electricity differently, this would mean reversing a perhaps too hastily made, ill-thought-out campaign promise: the elimination of the renewable tax credits put in place by the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.
The Trump administration’s mistaken focus on eliminating tax credits for clean energy flies in the face of two trends in the energy market. First, demand for energy is rising to an all-time high in the United States and clean energy (wind and solar) is making up an increasingly large share of energy production. So, just when this increased energy is needed, the cost will go up significantly because of the elimination of the tax credits for wind and solar energy under the Inflation Reduction Act. Jesse Jenkins, who leads the Princeton ZERO Lab, puts it quite simply, “We’re effectively raising taxes on the country’s main sources of new power at a time when electricity prices are already rising.”
The rise in electric prices because of the OBBB are just simply arithmetic . How could the Trump administration be so misguided? The answer is simple and disturbing at the same time. President Trump and his administration simply do not understand how renewable energy works. As an example of this line of thinking, I point to an op-ed that Energy Secretary Chris Wright did for the New York Post:
How much would you pay for an Uber if you didn’t know when it would pick you up or where it was going to drop you off? Probably not much. Yet this is the same effect that variable generation sources like wind and solar have on our power grids. You never know if these energy sources will actually be able to produce electricity when you need it—because you don’t know if the sun will be shining or the wind blowing. Even so, the federal government has subsidized these sources for decades, resulting in higher electricity prices and a less stable grid.
Wright’s argument also misses the point that the fossil fuels part of the American energy market is increasingly unreliable. Research from the Center for American Progress points out that “the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat, wildfires, winter storms, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events is straining the grid, while also highlighting the vulnerabilities and lack of preparedness from conventional fossil fuel generation.”
The good news here is that clean energy advocates are fighting back and letting people know that their electric rates are going up—and who is responsible. Politico reports that “one such group, Clean Energy for America, is deploying billboard ads next week targeting seven of the lawmakers considered most vulnerable in the 2026 races. The ads in lawmakers’ districts say the Republican ‘just voted to raise your electricity bill’ and directs readers to RepublicanRateHike.org, a website the organization created. The ads target Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa).”
It is essential to view the rate increases from the OBBB on top of those utility rate increases already in the pipeline. The group Powerlines points out that “Q2 2025, utilities requested or received approval for over $9 billion in rate increases, including approximately $7.3 billion in new requests and $1.7 billion in approved rate increases. This brings total requested and approved rate increases for the first half of 2025 to approximately $29 billion.”
For consumers energy issues come down to the bottom line. Millions of Americans will be paying much more for their electricity because of Trump’s OBBB. This burden will fall disproportionally on those on fixed or low incomes. According to research by Columbia University, roughly 34 million Americans are energy insecure, meaning that they went without food or medicine to pay utility bills or they set their heating or cooling at an unhealthy level.
By all accounts, the 2026 midterm elections will be close. A few thousand votes here and there may well decide who controls the House of Representatives. The OBBB’s boost of electric prices may be the one thing that pushes Democrats over the top.
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Sanders Says Every Republican Who Backed Trump-GOP Budget 'Must Pay a Price at the Ballot Box'
"They do not deserve to be re-elected and they must be defeated," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jul 04, 2025
As communities across the United States braced for impact after congressional Republicans approved the biggest Medicaid and nutrition assistance cuts in the nation's history, Sen. Bernie Sanders said Thursday that every lawmaker who supported the budget legislation "must pay a price at the ballot box" in the 2026 midterms and beyond.
"This bill includes the largest cut ever to Medicaid in order to pay for the largest tax break for billionaires that we have ever seen," Sanders (I-Vt.), who is working to recruit progressive candidates for office, said after the House passed the legislation, sending it to President Donald Trump's desk.
"Make no mistake about it: This bill is a death sentence for working-class and low-income Americans," said Sanders.
While some GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate voiced concerns about the bill's massive cuts to Medicaid and other programs as the measure moved through Congress, the legislation ultimately garnered near-unanimous support from the Republican caucus when it came time for the final votes. Just three out of 53 Republican senators and two out of 220 GOP representatives voted against the completed bill.
Analysts and advocates expect the legislation to inflict major damage across the country, shuttering rural hospitals, stripping health coverage and food aid from millions, raising costs for Medicare recipients, and devastating local economies.
Some of the pain will be concentrated in swing districts currently represented by Republican supporters of the budget package. For example, 64% of Rep. David Valadao's (R-Calif.) constituents in California's 22nd Congressional District rely on Medicaid.
Valadao is one of 10 Republicans targeted by an ad push that the advocacy group Protect Our Care launched following Thursday's vote in the House. The other targeted lawmakers are Reps. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Young Kim (R-Calif.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.).
Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, said in a statement that "these Republicans just voted for the largest healthcare cuts in history in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations, and we're going to make sure that every single one of their constituents knows it."
"These Republicans betrayed their constituents and working Americans' healthcare for billionaire tax cuts," Woodhouse added, "and we're ready to go from the grassroots to the airwaves until every last one of them is held accountable."
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