US President Donald Trump speaks during a round table with Attorney General Todd Blanche at the White House in Washington, DC, US, October 21, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump's new plan to fight back against Democrats less than 24 hours before polls open on the east coast appears to be throwing everything at the wall to see what will stick.
Rather than talking about the affordability crisis, campaigning on better policies that Americans need and deploying more of an "I feel your pain" message, the administration is looking to litigation. If litigation doesn't work, they'll simply spread the word that the election was "rigged" and illegitimate.
The Atlantic reported Monday that the Justice Department is pursuing a broad, last-minute campaign to undermine public confidence in the 2026 midterm elections. This is in conjunction with its lawsuits, most of which are expected to fail.
Legal reporter Quinta Jurecic explained that the Justice Department is less about winning this time around and more about creating a spectacle with allegations of fraud, Democratic misconduct and anything else that Trump supporters can use to question the 2026 results.
Over the weekend, courts in California and Alaska dismissed the DOJ's lawsuits. They're trying to scare poll workers and those helping in county clerks' offices to count ballots with claims they'll be prosecuted for a crime not yet known. The DOJ has charged more than 100 people with alleged voting crimes and they opened or escalated investigations involving Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), former FBI Director James Comey and other figures reviled by MAGA.
All of these moves resemble the “election interference” Trump accused Jack Smith of committing before the 2024 election, alleged Jurecic. The one exception is that the DOJ's current conduct more closely fits, Jurecic said.
In California, the DOJ tried to claim that 20,000 voters on the rolls were fraudulent. Their biggest problem is that they were working off of a database that has been known to spit out false information. So, when California sorted through the list, they easily found a few dozen quickly that were U.S. citizens and legally registered to vote.
Jurecic noted that the DOJ’s voter-fraud prosecutions are now totally about 180 people, alleging that they voted illegally at some point between Jan. 2025 and now. They're blowing up stories of arrests, broadcasting mug-shot-style images of the people, but there's one major problem: 180 people is a far cry from what Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said was over 300,000 people. Their numbers keep dwindling.
Trump said during his national address in July that DHS had “identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections,” then added, “The real number is actually much higher.” The Trump administration hasn't been able to prove it or prosecute anywhere near that number.
California found that many non-citizens could have been automatically registered to vote through the Mobile Voter program, which automatically signs people up to vote when they get a license or a state-issued ID. So far, even among the 180, about two dozen have been convicted and many of them were "honest mistakes," said a USA Today report.
Attorney General Todd Blanche rejected any claim that the DOJ is trying to influence the election, calling the idea “crazy.” But Jurecic noted that he also told a conservative podcaster, “I work for President Trump,” and concluded that DOJ’s conduct speaks a lot louder than its denials.
The question remains: can Trump dip into that well again, and will anyone believe his allegations of voter fraud or "rigged" elections again?