President Donald Trump may think he’s found a Trojan horse to seize the midterms, but security expert Miles Taylor says that horse isn’t riding off anytime soon.
Trump fired all three remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, abruptly disabling the only federal agency devoted to election administration at a moment when the president is working to warp federal voting rules. And Taylor said a captured EAC could conceivably begin Trump’s dirty work under the direction of anti-democratic loyalists the White House plans to parachute into the commission.
“What’s more, they could rewrite state-specific instructions on the voter forms to create registration traps and onerous requirements, confusing instructions, translation issues, and on and on,” Taylor reasoned. “Surely, the sycophants in Trump’s orbit are thinking of other evil ways to manipulate the EAC’s powers to steer the elections in Trump’s favor.”
“[But] here’s where I get to tell you why their plan is doomed,” Taylor added. “And it isn’t because I’m a cock-eyed optimist. It’s because a lot of very good lawyers out there are prepared to tear Trump’s plan to shreds.”
Taylor, who worked in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security in his first administration before becoming a whistleblower to the administration abuse, said Trump must get the replacements confirmed by the Senate or install legally dubious “acting” appointments. And lawsuits are waiting for him as soon as he tries to circumvent requirements.
Furthermore, whatever changes Trump makes to the EAC doesn’t mean they can just start tampering with voter registration forms because the forms are protected by law. When former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach attempted to force citizenship documents onto the form a decade ago, Taylor said the Tenth Circuit shut him down, and the Supreme Court backed that decision up.
“Third, agencies can’t just flip on a dime,” said Taylor. “Under the Administrative Procedure Act, an abrupt reversal of decades of an agency’s position — especially with no clear evidence of the ‘voter fraud’ it purports to solve — is the textbook definition of ‘arbitrary and capricious. Courts have thrown out far less blatant reversals.”
Courts have already rejected Trump’s other bids to unilaterally implement new restrictions. A federal judge in Washington permanently blocked Trump’s 2025 executive order and its proof-of-citizenship mandate. And just two weeks ago, another federal court destroyed it in a suit brought by nineteen states. The judiciary, said Taylor, isn’t “rolling over to let Trump hijack voting in America.”
“Also, for what it’s worth, the plaintiffs are ready,” said Taylor. “I suspect lawsuits are being drafted as I write this. … groups … are probably preparing legal briefs this very morning. I know state attorneys general are gearing up, too. When I say that we’re better prepared for these types of anti-democratic shenanigans than we were the last time, this is what I mean.”
“Trump may think he found a Trojan horse. What he actually found is a trap of his own making. Every action he tries to take to abuse the EAC will be met with resistance and tie him up in litigation as the clock ticks to November,” Taylor added.
