Trump & Republicans Plans to Rig the Midterms and future elections

 

USPS Insider Blows Whistle on Trump Rigging 2026 Midterms

 

Over a Million Voters SUSPENDED by State, Trump Impedes on Mail-In Voting

 

Corrupt & Partisan Radical Right Wing Supreme Court Affirms Trump’s Executive Order to create lists of ‘approved voters’ to get ballots by mail. This is another example of how Trump & Republicans know they can’t win unless elections are rigged for THEM!

 

In a major win for free and fair elections, a federal judge blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing key parts of Donald Trump’s anti-mail voting order. In this episode, Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias breaks down Judge Indira Talwani’s critical ruling and reveals how it will impact the midterm elections. Plus, Marc explains why Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results is at the heart of the battles we’re fighting today.

 

After Democratic-led states sue to block the United States Postal Service from implementing new Trump administration rules for mail-in ballots, MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell examines what California Gov. Gavin Newsom calls “this perilous moment in history” as Donald Trump attempts to illegally seize control of our elections. Lawrence says, “if our right to vote survives, it will be thanks to Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and California Attorney General Rob Bonta” and other state attorneys general now “fighting for the most important thing that any state attorneys general have ever fought for.

 

Trump won’t rule out declaring midterm elections emergency order

Trump is staring down the barrel of dwindling poll numbers as time ticks down to the midterms, giving Republicans much to consider in vulnerable districts. MS NOW Political Analyst Molly Jong-Fast and Lincoln Project Senior Advisor Stuart Stevens join Alex Witt to discuss this, Trump trolling over a 3rd term in office, the political future of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NJ), and more.

 

Trump’s ‘demented’ speech shows he intends to interfere in the 2026 Midterm Election

Lawrence O’Donnell details the many lies Donald Trump told in his primetime address, repeating his big lie about the 2020 election “to climb out of the dark hole he is in in the polls” and “defiled the White House once again” just to lie about election security.

 

How Trump Could Challenge the Next Election

Former DHS official Miles Taylor discusses concerns about election administration, democratic institutions, and the political strategies shaping the road to 2028.

 

Trump Administration Gets Caught Rigging Midterm Election

Jesse talks about alarming reporting about Donald Trump’s plot to rig the midterms and all future elections by ordering the United States Postal Service to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots of American voters.

 

How Much Power Does Trump Have Over the Midterms?

Trump is willing to plot insurrection, ignore court orders, purge the Justice Department, pardon political allies, indict his enemies, threaten election officials, and openly test the limits of presidential power, what’s to stop him from simply stealing the 2026 midterm elections?

 

Aug 11, 2026 UPDATE: Trump’s mail-in ballot executive order violated Constitution, court finds

 

Judge Stops Trump From Hijacking USPS to Rig 2026

 

“Five alarm fire!” Trump caught meddling with Postal Service ahead of midterms

 

Voting Rights Groups Challenge Executive Order on Mail-In Ballots as Illegal Interference in Elections – ACLU of Massachusetts

President Trump’s unlawful executive order would take control of mail-in ballots from the states and create an unvalidated, error-prone system that would risk disenfranchising eligible voters.

Trump’s unlawful executive order would take control of mail-in ballots from the states and create an unvalidated, error-prone system that would risk disenfranchising eligible voters.

“This executive order is an illegal and dangerous attempt by the Trump administration to eliminate accessible voting options and subvert our democracy by seizing control of election administration from the states and Congress. If implemented, it would disenfranchise eligible voters across the nation.

“Attempts to end voting by mail are part of the Trump administration’s larger strategy to undermine elections and subvert the will of the people. The U.S. Constitution is clear: the states and Congress — not the president — set the rules for our elections. President Trump tried to make an end-run around the Constitution with another executive order last year and was promptly rebuffed by multiple courts. History will repeat itself.

“This executive order would upend countless state laws and procedures regarding mail-in voting. It could deny eligible voters, including voters with disabilities, U.S. citizens living abroad, and military members and their family members, the right to vote by mail — and unknown numbers will be disenfranchised without that option. Far from improving elections, this executive order would create chaos for election officials, erode public confidence in our elections, and block Americans from exercising their most fundamental right and responsibility as citizens — voting. By taking the administration to court, we are standing up for the rule of law and the promise of our democracy.”

A coalition of voting rights organizations filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts challenging President Trump’s March 31 executive order concerning mail-in voting. The Constitution explicitly states that only Congress and the states can set the rules for elections. Nevertheless, the order attempts to displace states’ mail-in voting laws by transforming the U.S. Postal Service from a neutral mail carrier to an arbiter of who may cast a ballot by mail.

The order also requires the Department of Homeland Security to build and give to each state a list of citizens eligible to vote. Given that federal databases are out-of-date and unreliable, this risks mass disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

The suit was filed by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the League of Women Voters, Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO), U.S. Vote Foundation, OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA), and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Massachusetts, Brennan Center for Justice, Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), and LatinoJustice PRLDEF.

 

Analyzing the President’s Executive Order on Mail Voting

This bid to seize control of mail voting would wreak havoc on elections and harm American voters.

Per the above article: Trump issued a new executive order that aims to illegally rewrite the rules for federal elections. The principal thrust of the order is to charge the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) with determining who may vote by mail and instructs it to refuse to deliver ballots sent by anyone not included on newly created federal mail voter lists. It threatens criminal penalties for election officials, mail carriers, and others who send ballots to or deliver ballots from individuals the administration deems ineligible. Perhaps to facilitate this usurpation of state and federal laws governing mail voting, it also orders the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to compile lists of voting-age U.S. citizens in every state, using incomplete and unreliable federal data sources.

If implemented, the executive order would inject chaos into our elections, block eligible American citizens from voting, undermine voter privacy, and expose election officials and others to criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs.

The Brennan Center and other groups are challenging the executive order in court, just as they challenged the previous executive order on elections that Trump issued in March 2025. Other nonpartisan, partisan, and state government entities have also filed suit. Both the 2025 and 2026 orders are unlawful principally because the president lacks any authority to run elections. The Constitution gives only states and Congress the power to set election rules.

Multiple federal courts have blocked the key parts of the March 2025 anti-voting order. (The administration has appealed those rulings.) The provisions of the new executive order and their potential impact are detailed below.

Voter Suppression

The latest executive order directs DHS to coordinate with the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to create a list of voting-age American citizens in each state. These so-called “state citizenship lists” would include individuals who are over the age of 18, “confirmed to be United States citizens,” and who “maintain a residence” in the state. The federal government does not currently maintain a list of all U.S. citizens, let alone lists of citizens in each state, and there is no federal law that authorizes it to do so. Various federal privacy and information security laws have prevented the creation of such lists.

Per the order, the new “state citizenship lists” would not be compiled using existing state voter registration lists or any other state data but rather a variety of federal databases that have been created for other purposes. However, the federal government’s information on citizenship is incomplete and sometimes inaccurate, meaning American citizens could be left off DHS’s lists. If those lists are used to determine voter eligibility, anyone excluded could potentially be disenfranchised.

For example, one source the executive order claims should be used for citizenship verification is the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or “SAVE,” program. But this program was created to determine immigrants’ eligibility for various government benefits, not as a comprehensive list of U.S. citizens. Even with those additions, recent attempts by DHS to use this data to identify noncitizens on states’ voter rolls demonstrate that the SAVE program frequently mistakenly flags Americans as potential noncitizens, with a very high error rate. Moreover, none of the datasets that the order lists are designed to determine whether a person “maintains a residence” in a given state.

This provision raises other questions and concerns as well. The order requires DHS to share these lists with the states at least 60 days before each election but does not indicate what states are meant to do with them. The 60-day rule also means the lists would, by default, exclude individuals who are not 18 at the time of the list’s creation but reach voting age at the time of an election. It would also exclude individuals who gain U.S. citizenship during this period, as well as many Americans living abroad.

While the order directs DHS to allow individuals to review and correct their information on these lists, there are no provisions to ensure that affected individuals would be made aware of this process or that any corrections would be done in time to enable them to vote.
Criminal Liability for Election Officials and Others

The order directs the U.S. attorney general to prioritize investigating and prosecuting state and local election officials who issue federal ballots to ineligible voters, without regard for criminal intent or whether those ineligible individuals actually cast the ballots. Because this directive immediately follows the order’s section establishing “state citizenship lists,” it appears to suggest that election officials who issue ballots to individuals not on the faulty lists created by DHS will be treated as criminals. This implied threat comes at a time when the Justice Department has launched multiple criminal investigations against election offices based on conspiracy theories.

Similarly, the order directs the DOJ to prioritize investigating and prosecuting other individuals and entities involved in “the printing, production, shipment, or distribution of ballots” to ineligible individuals. This appears to sweep in election administration vendors, postal workers, and civic volunteers who help individuals submit their ballots. It is difficult to imagine how any of these potential targets would even know a voter’s eligibility, let alone have the criminal intent to help them vote while ineligible, suggesting that their liability would be based entirely on whether a voter was not on DHS’s state citizenship lists.

In addition, the order purports to require states and localities to preserve all election records (except ballots) for five years. Federal election law requires election records to be kept for only 22 months.

USPS Ballot Redesign

The order directs USPS to issue regulations specifying how states should design mail ballot envelopes. USPS does not have, and has never before claimed to have, any authority over state ballot design choices. Nor does it have the expertise to design ballots. The only election-related services it offers to states, apart from regular mail delivery, are voluntary expedited mailing and tracking services. The president likewise has no authority over ballot design or any other aspect of election rules, nor can he direct the actions of the Postal Service, which is an independent agency.
“Voluntary” State Lists of Mail and Absentee Voters

The order says states can “choose” to notify USPS at least 90 days before any federal election about whether they plan to allow voters to use mail or absentee ballots. If so, it says they “should” notify USPS about whether they intend to provide a list of eligible voters who are allowed to vote by mail or absentee ballot within 60 days of the election. There is no law that requires states to provide USPS any notifications or lists related to voting or that authorizes USPS to require such lists.

The 60-day deadline for submitting these lists is out of step with other election deadlines set by federal and state law. The Constitution prohibits state voter registration deadlines to be more than 30 days before an election, and in most states, that window is considerably shorter. In every state, the deadline to request absentee ballots is far shorter than 60 days, with most making the cutoff two weeks or fewer before an election.

While the president seems to acknowledge that he cannot order the states to create these lists and has made these notifications voluntary, other provisions of the order suggest that states that don’t provide mail and absentee voting lists to USPS may put their citizens’ right to vote by mail at risk.

USPS Discretion Over Casting Mail and Absentee Ballots

The order directs USPS to create a third set of lists for each state — “mail-in and absentee participation lists” — and to refuse to deliver ballots cast by anyone who isn’t on them. It’s entirely unclear how USPS would determine who should be on these lists. It seems that the order means for USPS to use DHS’s “state citizenship lists” to cull the mail voter lists that states provide, though that is left unsaid. What is clear is that it intends for USPS not to deliver the ballots of otherwise eligible voters who are not on the agency’s new “mail-in and absentee participation lists,” even though multiple federal laws prohibit USPS from selectively refusing to deliver mail.

Taken together, these provisions make clear that the president is attempting to seize the power to regulate mail voting from the states and Congress and use USPS to determine who gets to vote by mail and who does not. USPS has no legal authority to make such determinations.

If implemented, this system would block eligible American citizens from voting. Some might argue that these changes apply only to mail voting, and that voters who are denied that option could simply use another method. This assumption overlooks several practical problems, including that voting by mail is the only option for some people, such as those with disabilities.

First, nothing in the order would require USPS to notify voters if they aren’t on the agency’s approved list and their mail ballot is therefore never delivered to a local election office. Without such notice, many voters would have no idea their vote was not counted. Even if USPS did provide notice, many affected individuals might not have the time or the means to correct the issue or switch to another voting method. For instance, elderly, disabled, and overseas Americans who rely on mail voting may face significant barriers to voting in person or through alternative means, especially on short notice.

The order’s implications extend further. As noted above, it suggests that USPS would need to refuse to deliver all mail ballots from residents of any state that either declines to share its list of approved mail and absentee voters or fails to adopt USPS’s mandated ballot design changes. This would magnify existing concerns about transparency, timing, and access to the ballot on a statewide scale. Add to that the fact that the agency tasked with implementing the painstaking process of comparing every mailed ballot to these voter lists is running out of money, and it creates a recipe for disenfranchisement and utter chaos in our elections.

There are also significant privacy concerns associated with passing these various voter lists — which may include sensitive personal information — back and forth between states and federal agencies.

 

Trump’s Midterm Interference Machine

 

Billionaires’ Shocking Plan To Silence Working-Class Voters

 

 

Save America Act: Trump’s Scheme to Steal the 2026 Elections

The deceptively named ‘Save America Act’ is about further ‘Destroying America’ and ‘Saving Trump’s Ass’ from being impeached by rigging Elections for Republicans so they can’t be voted out by citizens who are FED UP with their Anti-Democratic Fascist policies and destruction of our country

 

 

Georgia Senator Warnock UNLOADS on Trump SAVE Act. Calls It a Power Grab to Block Voters

 

Georgia Democrat Senator Warnock exposes Oklahoma Republican Senator Paul Lankford’s false statements about the “Save Trump’s Ass” bill

 

Report exposes a Trump scheme to override midterm vote with bogus crisis

Rachel Maddow talks with Senator Mark Warner, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, about reporting in the Washington Post that people close to Donald Trump are being pitched an idea to use fake intelligence about foreign election interference to allow Trump to declare an emergency and take over the voting system ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

 

Trump’s Plan to STEAL the Midterms UNCOVERED by Data Analysts

 

Trump FIRED federal election protection personnel who REFUSED to help him STEAL the 2020 election (Apr 14, 2026)

 

Trump Admin ADMITS They’re Ready To Wreck The Next Election

A buried report reveals the DOJ has dismantled key election crime enforcement systems, cutting prosecutors, shutting down coordination, and limiting oversight just months before a critical election. A former official warns the real issue is simple, the agency responsible for enforcing election law is no longer positioned to act.

 

“Jim Crow 2.0.” Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester Calls Out SAVE Act as an Attack on Voting Rights

 

Trump Accidentally Reveals Conspiracy To Steal Midterm Election

Jesse talks about Donald Trump’s alarming answer to a reporter’s question about planning to declare a national emergency leading up to the midterms and send in ICE to interfere with the outcome.

 

George Conway – Trump Will Try to Steal the Election

George Conway — former Republican lawyer, Trump critic, and congressional candidate in NY-12 — sits down with Marc Elias to discuss the state of American democracy and Trump’s authoritarian tactics. Conway argues that everything he warned about in 2024 is now coming to fruition: a president intent on holding onto power, unconstrained the rule of law, and willing to undermine free and fair elections.

 

Clarence Thomas Midterms Plot Goes Public!

SCOTUS are doing everything they can to make the midterms run as smoothly as possible for Donald Trump, including a Clarence Thomas led decision to effectively allow USPS to burn ballots. The Damage Report’s John Iadarola breaks it down.

 

 

Illegitimate Prez Trump threatens exec order on voter ID SAVE Act if bill fails in Senate

Trump just vowed to block ALL legislation until Congress passes his voting bill, then bragged Democrats “probably won’t win an election for 50 years” if it passes.
The SAVE America Act, which squeaked through the House 218-213 on pure party lines, would force every voter to show up in person with a passport or birth certificate just to register.
More than 21 million Americans lack ready access to those documents. The Center for American Progress estimates it could create new voting hurdles for up to 100 million people.
It gets worse. The bill would take effect immediately upon signing right before midterm elections. Election officials who register someone without perfect paperwork could face prison time, even if the voter is a citizen.

And every state would be forced to hand its voter rolls over to DHS for screening through a database that has already been flagging actual citizens as noncitizens.
The problem this is supposed to solve? It barely exists. Utah reviewed its entire voter registration list, over 2 million voters, and found exactly one noncitizen registered and zero who actually voted.

Here’s the real backdrop: a new NBC News poll shows 62% of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation and cost of living and Democrats hold a 6-point lead on the generic congressional ballot He’s staring down a brutal midterm, so instead of winning voters, he’s trying to eliminate them.

Senate Democrats have vowed to kill it. Schumer called it Jim Crow for the 21st century. Even Republican senators like Murkowski and Collins have pushed back. Trump’s approval is underwater. His economy numbers are tanking. Democrats are up 6 points on the congressional ballot. So instead of earning votes, he’s trying to make sure millions of people can’t cast them

 

‘Surround the polls’: Trump ally admits voter intimidation plan using ICE

Trump and his allies are now straight up telling us that they plan to try everything they can to interfere in the midterms—including using ICE agents,” says Chris Hayes.

 

Republicans pull 11TH HOUR STUNT to rig midterms

 

Trump is going to try to cancel the midterms

Donald Trump could attempt to delay, disrupt, or manipulate midterm elections through emergency declarations and pressure on state officials if political conditions favor such actions

 

Republicans FRANTICALLY Urge Trump To RIG The Midterms

 

Five alarm fire!” Trump issues STUNNING election announcement

 

Trump’s Plan to Steal the Election: What’s Beneath the Surface?

Marc Elias explains the Voter Suppression Iceberg — a breakdown of the tactics, laws, and strategies that Republicans are using to restrict voting access in the United States. Marc breaks down everything from surface-level policies most voters recognize, down to the lesser-known, deep-cut mechanisms that influence elections behind the scenes. Watch for deep insights into US news, politics, and election protection.

 

Three ways Trump is trying to rig the 2026 midterm elections

 

Elon Musk Reemerges To Buy Midterm Elections For Republicans

Elon Musk has decided to break his promises to both stay out of politics and to start his own political party, and he is now pledging to give truckloads of money to conservative candidates in next year’s midterm races. Elon clearly didn’t learn his lessons from this year about how much he is universally despised, and he seems to think that enough time has passed to make everyone forget about what a wretched piece of trash he is

 

Missouri Republican calls in ICE to interfere with ballot initiative

 

Trump threatens upcoming election

 

Implications of Trump’s election denier pardons

Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and 76 other allies tied to the 2020 election plot as he ramps up efforts to rig the election before the 2026 midterms.

 

Trump’s SCHEME to RIG 2026 Next Election – Greg Palast

Independent journalist Zeynab Day interviews investigative journalist Greg Palast about Trump’s new executive order that implements severe voter ID restrictions meant to suppress votes that traditionally go to the Democratic Party.

 

Justice Department pulls SHOCKING stunt ahead of election

 

Trump Has Sinister Plan To STEAL 2026 Elections

 

Trump is going to RIG the 2026 midterms

 

Trump Has Laid The Groundwork To Steal Future Elections

In just 6 months in office, Trump has laid the framework to allow Republicans to steal future elections. The biggest move was packing the DOJ with election-denying loyalists who likely won’t hesitate to make false claims of massive fraud and pressure local officials to toss election results. The DOJ would also be less likely to launch any challenges to oppressive tactics on voting day. On top of that, Trump has judges installed all over the country who care more about loyalty to him than they do about the rule of law, meaning challenges could be swiftly dismissed.

 

Trump Posts MOVE TO CANCEL FUTURE ELECTIONS on Putin’s Advice

 

Trump’s DESCRIBES PLANS TO START A WAR to Cancel the 2028 Election

 

Trump CAUGHT IN THE ACT pulling Election Theft Scheme

Trump’s desperate attempt to access voter info in 9 states and voting machines in Colorado FAILS. Colorado Secretary of State launches investigation into the illegal scheme.

 

CNN Drops Alarming MIDTERM ELECTIONS BOMB On Trump

 

Sen. Adam Schiff: Trump is Trying to Rig the 2026 Election

 

Midterm Elections BOMB

 

These Trump Plans Would End Fair Elections in 2026

The Trump Fascist regime is planning to end fair elections before 2026, the DOJ is already putting out requests to study voter rolls to find vulnerabilities that they can exploit.

 

Rep. Jared Huffman Exposes Trump’s Save Act

Trump & Republicans’ bogus “SAVE Act” is completely deceiving. This bill isn’t saving anyone anything – it’ll cost Americans over $19B and prevent millions of people (like service members, married people with name changes and indigenous peoples) from voting.

 

Redistricting in Texas is just the beginning. Today we’re connecting the dots across gerrymandering, census questions, Pam Bondi seeking voter rolls, and more, to understand the full picture of the Republican plan to completely undermine election integrity in this country until there are no elections left.

 

Trump & MAGA Want To CONTROL American Votes

 

Trump Admits He’s Rigging The Midterm Elections For Republicans

Trump admitted to a reporter on Tuesday that he has encouraged Texas to gerrymander their state in order to prevent Democrats from picking up any seats in next year’s midterms. And then the idiot decided to mention that he’s also telling four other states to do the same thing. Trump is not just trying to rig the midterms – he’s openly boasting that he’s trying to do it because he feels invincible.

 

Trump says he holds all the Levers of power to overturn Election Results

 

Trump Already Trying To STEAL The Next Election

 

Trump threatens to take over NYC if Mamdani is elected mayor

 

 

 

‘I hold all the levers’: Trump hints he’ll overturn election result in NYC

President Donald Trump vowed to be the savior of New York City as he declared war on the Democratic Party’s nominee for mayor – a man who won overwhelming support from primary voters in a democratic election.With no evidence, Trump declared Zohran Mamdani a “Communist Lunatic” and told the city to r…

 

Per the above article: ‘I hold all the levers’: Trump hints he’ll overturn election result in NYC

Trump vowed to be the savior of New York City as he declared war on the Democratic Party’s nominee for mayor — a man who won overwhelming support from primary voters in a democratic election. “As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York,” Trump raged on Truth Social Wednesday. “Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards. I’ll save New York City, and make it “Hot” and “Great” again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”

 

DOJ Defends Voter Suppression, Trump Targets NYC Mayoral Candidate

 

Is Trump planning on delaying the 2026 Election?

 

The Trump Administration Is Going After Our Elections Too

Government employees have long protected the ballot from attacks. The president is preparing to fire many of them.

Per the above article:  “In its crusade against federal agencies, the Trump administration is targeting our election system, making potentially dangerous reductions to protections that help keep elections free, fair, and secure. On Friday, the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency sent a memo to all agency staff notifying them that “all election security activities” would be paused pending the results of an internal investigation. The memo also stated that the administration was cutting off all funds to the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center—a Department of Homeland Security–funded organization that helps state and local officials monitor, analyze, and respond to cyberattacks targeting the nation’s election hardware and software.

The work of CISA and the EI-ISAC has been central to election security in the United States for most of the past decade, providing state and local election officials with critical tools and assistance to defend against cyber and physical threats to election systems. These steps and other recent blows to federal election guardrails were foretold in Project 2025. Understanding the playbook will help us be ready to push back when the next shoes drop.

Changes to CISA began shortly after Kristi Noem was sworn in as secretary of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency. Beyond the announced election security pause and defunding of EI-ISAC, the agency also put critical election security staff on leave and targeted them for potential termination. These staff include CISA’s regional election security advisers, who are former state and local election officials that provide on-the-ground security support to current frontline election workers, and members of the agency’s Election Resilience team, who were reportedly targeted because they had previously been involved with the agency’s efforts to communicate accurate information about election security to election officials and the public.

Although state and local election officials from both sides of the aisle have praised CISA for providing such support, President Donald Trump and several other conservatives have criticized the agency ever since Trump’s first appointee to lead CISA, Christopher Krebs, promoted accurate information about the 2020 election, including that the election was secure. (The president continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election was rigged.)

According to reports, leaders at the Department of Homeland Security will decide next steps for CISA’s election security initiatives when its review is completed March 6. But given the president’s attacks on CISA’s work, it is not difficult to imagine that the administration will permanently gut the agency’s election security role, as recommended in Project 2025.

Even if CISA nominally continues to offer limited election security support, cutting its staff and deprioritizing its work may mean that the nearly 10,000 local election officials on the ground feel very little benefit from the group.

The new administration’s attacks on federal election security assistance extend beyond CISA or the EI-ISAC. Almost immediately after she was sworn in as attorney general, Pam Bondi disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force—another target of Project 2025. The task force was established during Trump’s first term, following Russian actors’ attempts to interfere in the 2016 election by hacking campaign emails, influencing public opinion through social media, and probing for cybersecurity weak points in voter registration systems. Interference from Russia and other countries continues to threaten American elections. In 2024 bomb threats that appeared to come from Russian email domains were sent to polling locations, videos tied to Russia falsely depicted election workers destroying ballots, and hackers tied to Iran successfully obtained and attempted to leak documents from the Trump campaign. Now a critical line of defense against these attacks is gone.

The Trump administration also took aim earlier this month at the Federal Election Commission, the bipartisan agency that regulates campaign finance in federal elections. Project 2025 called for a weaker FEC, arguing that the independent agency should do less to regulate political spending. In an unprecedented move, Trump tried to fire the commission’s chair. The move came just as the FEC is set to adjudicate campaign finance complaints from the 2024 election, many of which involved billionaire Elon Musk’s contributions to and spending on behalf of the Trump campaign.

Each of these maneuvers weakens the guardrails that have kept American elections secure and fair. And again, they may be just the beginning, given other election-related recommendations in Project 2025.

The plan also further advocates targeting public and private institutions like task forces and university researchers that study election lies and attempt to communicate accurate election information to the public. Project 2025 even suggests weaponizing civil rights laws to go after election officials, voting registration groups, and nonpartisan voter-friendly policies.

Fortunately, the pushback against at least some of these efforts already has a blueprint in the pushback against executive orders targeting other government functions. Dozens of lawsuits have already been filed in response to Trump’s executive orders. Public pressure campaigns also appear to have had some success, with leaders in the Trump administration reversing course on policy decisions like the federal funding freeze. Any efforts by the Trump administration to use the Department of Justice or the Federal Communications Commission—as was suggested by Project 2025—to prevent Americans from voting, or exercising their First Amendment rights to tell the truth about elections, can likewise be fought in courts of law and public opinion”.