Maddow blog-Trump eyes yet another power grab, takes aim at voting machines and mail-in ballots

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The president’s sweeping executive order on elections lost in the courts, but his latest threats make clear that his radical ambitions haven’t changed.

It’s easy to shrug when Trump talks about leading “a movement” against mail-in ballots and voting machines.

But when he starts talking about imposing his version of “honesty” on the 2026 midterms, alarm bells start going off. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-18T16:03:24.048Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-eyes-yet-another-power-grab-takes-aim-voting-machines-mail-ballo-rcna225602

Predictably, the executive order faced immediate legal challenges, and a federal judges blocked the Republican’s outlandish power grab from going forward.

He’s apparently not giving up. NBC News reported:

Trump said in a post to Truth Social that he would sign an executive order to try to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines, a move that would almost certainly face immediate challenges in court. The president said in the post that he was ‘going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS’ and voting machines.

The 288-word online tantrum — complete with six exclamation points, a robust number of sentences written with the caps lock on and the word “woke” — was remarkable in its inanity.

Trump claimed that no other country on the planet “uses Mail-In Voting,” which isn’t even close to being true. He similarly accused Democrats of cheating in elections, which also isn’t true......

And now Trump is eyeing another presidential directive to ensure his version of “honesty” is applied to next year’s elections.

Journalist and historian Garrett Graff noted in response to the latest online rant from the White House, “This is step one in how we lose free and fair elections. It’s not that Trump will ‘cancel’ the midterms. It’s just everyone has to vote in person, and urban downtowns will be filled with ICE checkpoints and intimidating National Guard troops to ‘double check’ that only citizens vote.”