Katie Couric's team breaks down Trump's multi-pronged assault on 2026 voting rights

President Donald Trump is likely to lose the House of Representatives and possibly even the Senate during the 2026 midterm elections — which is why a political journalist just broke down the various methods he plans on using to not allow that to happen.

“The 2026 midterms aren’t just about votes — they’re about who sets the rules,” wrote Katie Couric Media's News and Politics Editor Tess Bonn on Tuesday. “Over the course of his administration, President Trump and his allies are attempting to make moves that could reshape how Americans vote. That includes an executive order on mail-in ballots, a push for access to sensitive voter data, renewed calls to redraw congressional maps, and proposals such as the SAVE Act to tighten voter eligibility requirements.”

Bonn proceeded to review in detail Trump’s various plans, many of them legally questionable, before concluding that Trump’s plans for the election ultimately involve the use of raw power than any sophisticated legal or political theories.

“Concerns about interference aren’t limited to policy or enforcement — they’re also playing out in how elections could unfold on the ground,” Bonn explained. “While Trump hasn’t announced plans to deploy troops to polling places or seize voting machines, he and his allies have suggested such actions aren’t off the table. In January, Trump said he regretted not using the National Guard to seize certain voting machines after the 2020 election.”

Trump is now actualizing that rhetoric, from incoming-Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin saying he would be open to sending ICE to polling locations to the Department of Justice sending monitors to observe elections in California and New Jersey.

“Taken together, the moves point to a broader shift: federal involvement at or near polling places — once rare and tightly constrained — is becoming a more central part of the election security conversation,” Bonn wrote.

Last month Politico reported that people close to the White House note the president is acting like a man who does not need to worry about voters or elections when it comes to crafting his policies.

"Fourteen months into a second term defined by the president's heightened ambition and a dearth of dissenting voices, Trump remains in what can only be defined as YOLO mode,” Politico explained. “But the lack of restraint from an executive who won't have to face voters again has put his party in danger of losing the House and possibly the Senate too."

Conservative historian Robert Kagan speculated in February that Trump will never allow Democrats to reclaim power in the midterm elections.

“It's clear that he has no intention of allowing the elections to play out and allow a Democratic victory,” Kagan argued in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “And I think it's important to understand his motives here. He knows perfectly well that, in effect, his presidency will be greatly diminished once the Democrats take either one or both of the Houses.”

He concluded, “He himself is saying right now that he'll be impeached, and that is why he wants to prevent the Democrats from taking power.”