Trump’s 'looming threat' on the 2026 midterms is not what it seems: law professor

Voters wait in line to cast their votes during early voting in the U.S. presidential election at a polling station in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. November 3, 2024. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

University of Kentucky professor Joshua A. Douglas says President Donald Trump actually has no power to derail election in November, no matter how shrilly he screams.

“There is a looming threat to the 2026 midterm elections — but it is not Donald Trump’s latest claims that he can cancel them, nationalize them or rewrite their rules,” Douglas said in the Washington Monthly.

Knowing his fate in November is likely sealed, Trump is desperate to put his finger on the midterms and keep Democrats from taking the House and ending the Republican rubberstamp of Trump’s most controversial policies.

“Almost daily, Trump suggests he might take over the election system or complains about how it’s run. He floated 'nationalizing' elections, mused about deploying law enforcement at polling places, and expressed regret that he did not direct the National Guard to seize voting equipment after his 2020 election loss,” said Douglas.

Trump is also eager to impose new voting restrictions at the polls to reduce turnout for certain demographics that tend to vote Democrat. This includes his advocacy of voter ID.

“I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future!” Trump posted to social media. “There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!”

Douglas says “not.”

“Here is the reality: the president has no authority to run federal elections,”said Douglas. “The Constitution, through the Elections Clause in Article I, Section 4, assigns that power to the states, while allowing Congress to make or alter election regulations. Courts have already blocked the president’s executive order on voter registration rules. Neither an executive order nor presidential bombast can override our decentralized constitutional structure.”

Trump can threaten to deploy “sheriffs” and “law enforcement” at the polls, and considering ICE’s occupation in many places, people are obviously concerned that the president will try to dispatch his personal police force to intimidate voters.

“But federal and state law prohibit voter intimidation, and longstanding restrictions — including limits on the use of federal troops at polling places — would severely constrain any attempt to deploy armed officers,” said Douglas. “Should the feds try, courts would almost certainly issue immediate orders to prevent voter intimidation.”

Even worse for Trump, the nation’s “decentralized election administration provides a meaningful check on presidential abuse,” said Douglas. “Local election officials run elections, with state oversight. Thousands of election officials, who take pride in running free and fair elections, will not cancel them at the president’s request.”

“Yet we seem to repeat a now-familiar cycle: he says something outlandish, we spin our wheels responding and explaining why what he posits is not plausible, and our attention is diverted from the real problems,” Douglas said.

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