Trump threatens survival of American democracy with election rigging efforts

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President Trump, who is scheduled to deliver an address to the nation tonight on election integrity and other topics, poses one of the gravest threats in American history to the free and fair elections vital to the survival of our democracy.

Even as he falsely claims he wants to protect election integrity, Trump is working to rig elections in favor of his fellow Republicans.

The president wants to prevent Democrats from gaining majority control of one or both congressional chambers in the midterm elections to stop them from blocking his favored legislation and investigating him and his administration. He has said a Democratic House majority would impeach him.

Showing his disrespect for elections, Trump continues to claim, falsely, that he won the 2020 presidential race that Joe Biden actually won. This lie could have deadly consequences.

Trump has irresponsibly endangered the lives of Americans and our national security by giving hundreds of FBI employees and members of the intelligence community the impossible mission of proving he was reelected in 2020. While they are wasting time on this, they are not working to protect us against possible terrorist attacks from Iran and America’s other enemies.

The Trump administration has further endangered Americans with a new policy that will withhold 20 percent of $1 billion in annual terrorism preparedness grants from states that refuse to adopt voter suppression practices favored by the president.

Unlike past losing presidential candidates, who accepted the decision of voters, Trump filed more than 60 lawsuits seeking to overturn his election defeat. He lost them all.

Trump then summoned supporters to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, and asked them to march to the Capitol. They staged a deadly riot there and assaulted police officers in an effort to block Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory. The House impeached Trump for his actions, but the Republican-controlled Senate failed to convict him.

In his current term, Trump rewarded the rioters by pardoning more than 1,500 for their crimes, making a mockery of his claim that “I am your president of law and order.” He has called the rioters “patriots” for violently refusing to accept the integrity of the election he lost.

In a further move to show his contempt for election integrity, Trump is demanding Congress pass a voter suppression bill titled the Save America Act. It would make it harder for millions of U.S. citizens to vote, but lacks enough support to overcome a Senate filibuster.

The Save America Act would require Americans to show a photo ID to vote. It would require them to first go to a state elections office and produce a birth certificates, passports or naturalization papers to register to vote or update their registrations if necessary — for example, if they have changed addresses.

But more than 21 million voting-age U.S. citizens don’t have easy access to such documents, which can be costly and time-consuming to replace. In addition, more than 60 million married American women who took the last names of their husbands do not have birth certificates that match their current names.

Trump was so angered by the Senate’s failure to pass the Save America Act that he refused to sign a major bipartisan bill designed to make housing more affordable. He allowed the housing bill to become law without his signature, after belittling its importance by calling it “a big yawn.”

In another attack on free and fair elections, Trump demanded last year that Republican-controlled states gerrymander congressional and state legislative districts to favor Republicans. Eight states did.

On top of this, the Supreme Court voted this year to allow states to eliminate majority-minority election districts, in a move that will reduce Black voting power. This furthers Trump’s goal of helping Republicans in the midterms because most African American voters cast ballots for Democrats.

Trump also sought to suppress voting with an executive order issued in March requiring the U.S. Postal Service to restrict who can receive ballots for mail-in voting. A U.S. district court ruled in June that key portions of Trump’s order are unconstitutional, leading the Justice Department to appeal the ruling.

In addition, Trump removed the two Democratic members of the four-person Election Assistance Commission in July, after the two Republican members resigned. The commission’s job is to increase election security — the cause Trump claims to be interested in. Trump can nominate new members willing to do his bidding, who would need to be confirmed by the Senate to serve.

Trump’s actions show he has no interest in election integrity. He is only interested in winning elections by any means necessary.

The president wants to preserve Republican majorities in the House and Senate because he believes they will allow him to do almost anything he wants — ruling largely by executive orders, waging war without congressional authorization, weaponizing government against his perceived enemies, and monetizing his office to enrich himself (he earned at least $2.2 billion in 2025).

All Americans who believe in the Constitution’s checks and balances to constrain presidential power need to vote for Democratic House and Senate candidates in the midterm elections to stop Trump from continuing to wage war on our democracy and abusing his power.

A. Scott Bolden is an attorney, NewsNation contributor, former chair of the Washington, D.C. Democratic Party and a former New York state prosecutor.

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