How Trump Is Already Threatening the Midterms

From suggesting the US shouldn't even have an election

to saying Republicans should take over the voting,

Trump's rhetorical war on elections

has been getting more serious over time.

Now, as polls show Republicans could lose both the House

and the Senate, Trump's rhetoric is turning into action.

Trump and his allies are engaged in a coordinated effort

to undermine trust in elections,

and seemingly to lay the groundwork for claims

of a rigged midterm before a single vote is cast.

Here are just some of the ways

the Trump administration is already targeting

this year's midterm elections.

First, Trump is laser-focused on an anti-voting bill

called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act,

or SAVE for short.

SAVE requires stricter voting ID

and proof of citizenship to register.

It's a response to a conspiracy theory

that millions of non-citizens are flooding

polling stations every election.

Although the claim that migrants were voting

was widely shared ahead of the 2024 presidential election,

evidence suggests that non-citizen voting accounts

for a vanishingly small fraction of votes.

The administration is also pushing for unprecedented access

to voter data, demanding state voter rolls,

including driver's license data

and partial Social Security numbers.

Some states have complied, others are being sued,

and those that hand over data must allow

the federal government to test, analyze, and assess it,

and direct voter removals within tight deadlines.

While Trump hasn't announced any plans to deploy troops

to polling locations or seize voting machines,

he and his administration have certainly been suggesting

that such action is not off the table.

As a result,

state election officials are already wargaming scenarios

for ICE agents,

or even the National Guard could show up

at polling locations.

Trump also continues to call mail-in voting corrupt

and cheating, despite the fact that just last week,

he himself voted by mail in a special election in Florida.

His claims are based on conspiracy theories

that mail-in ballots are used by Democrats to fix the vote.

In reality, Republicans are less likely

to use mail-in ballots,

partially because of Trump's repeated demonization

of the process.

And so when mail-in ballots get counted on

or around election day,

they're most likely to result in a major jump

in votes for Democrats.

And that's only part of the picture.

Trump's broader campaign also includes the weaponization

of the FBI and the DOJ,

demanding Republican-controlled states

to redraw their voting maps, and more.

Read the full story at WIRED.com.