Donald Trump is proposing to violate the U.S. Constitution by calling for Republicans to “nationalize the voting” in upcoming elections. That doesn’t bother the president, who is constantly repeating his debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election results were doctored and he really won.
In truth, he lost. But he doesn’t care about the truth. This comes weeks after the president discussed the idea of canceling elections outright.
The Constitution’s Article I says: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.” Couldn’t be clearer.
But despite Trump lacking the power to cancel or otherwise directly modify elections, it doesn’t mean he can’t do a lot of damage. Even with his already high unpopularity with the public, Trump still sets the marching orders for a lot of GOP officials around the country, who are either true believers or cowards terrified of displeasing Trump. Some of these people are, unfortunately, secretaries of state, election board members and other officials that actually could try to act on Trump’s convenient delusions and interfere with elections.
Trump also has demonstrated that he’s perfectly willing to use the might of the federal government well outside any reasonable or even legal scope in order to pursue his grievances and consolidate his power. That’s what the federal agent occupations of blue cities have been about, and it’s why more than five years on from his 2020 election loss in Georgia, Trump had federal agents raid a Fulton County election office to seize ballots, obsessed as he is with the lie that the election was stolen from him.