US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum attends a dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
President Donald Trump had a plan to rig the 2026 midterms in favor of the Republicans, but every step of the way, he appears to have hit a wall.
iPaper's Max Melzer penned a report Friday that even Trump's U.S. Post Office is ignoring his demands to act as a kind of gatekeeper for mail-in ballots.
Trump attempted to redraw congressional districts, which are only done after new Census Bureau numbers. Instead, states like Texas, Missouri, and others tried to redraw districts based on the 2024 election results favoring Trump and the GOP. There are now concerns that as Trump's 2024 coalition is breaking apart, using that as a guide may not have been the best idea. In Texas, for example, there are three districts that were drawn specifically to be Republican that may flip to Democratic.
FBI Director Kash Patel refused to dissuade concerns that the federal government will send agents, homeland security officers and others to "monitor" the polls on Election Day.
Trump even tried to shove through his own voter restrictions bill that would have put extra barriers to voting freedoms, but with a Republican House and Senate, he failed to get it passed.
Finally, earlier this week, the Supreme Court struck down implementing parts of Trump's executive order that would have restricted access to mailed ballots in states that wouldn't turn over their voter rolls to the federal government. By Thursday, the USPS had stopped working on the lists and was complying with the Supreme Court's order, the Associated Press reported.
"There is now a growing sense of panic among some in the party as the prospect of losing control of both chambers of Congress increases," Melzer wrote for iPaper.
His March executive order implemented many of the demands in his voter restrictions bill, with the added requirement that the USPS pick and choose which ballots were sent to voters. It would have allowed the USPS to decline to deliver any ballot it wanted.
Several states took the administration to court, citing the U.S. Constitution's law mandating that elections be handled by the states. While they won in several lower courts, the decision ultimately handed the victory to the high court.
Melzer called it one of Trump's "high-risk" moves.
Republicans are struggling to stay afloat in a sea of negativity about their party and the president. Americans are struggling to get by in an economy that the GOP swears is doing well. Trump alleged that the affordability crisis was a "hoax." The flubbed war in Iran has driven gas and diesel prices higher and higher.
"Instead of moving to address those concerns, Trump has been focused on pushing some states to re-draw electoral maps in ways that disadvantage Democrats and embarking on a new trade war with Canada that could further push up the price of some US products," wrote Melzer.
It's causing a very public disconnect between voters and Trump, in particular. It's leading to "a deepening sense of unease among Republicans, and his failure to cement an advantage through changing mail-in voting has further exposed the party by diverting time and attention away from its core messaging."
Melzer pointed to one of the glaring examples coming out of Texas, where the U.S. Senate race is competitive after Trump backed a GOP candidate with hefty negatives.
Trump won Texas by double-digit numbers in 2024, but it appears that is gone now.
"The prospect of a Democrat win in what has been a Republican stronghold has served to strengthen fears that Trump’s actions could ultimately cost the party control of Congress," Melzer closed.
