Trump's Plot To Undermine The Midterms

Donald Trump is actively laying the groundwork to dismantle free and fair elections in America. If we don’t take this seriously now, our elections in 2026 and 2028 will be rigged to keep him — and his MAGA allies — in power.

This weekend, the AP reported that Trump’s inner circle is openly strategizing to undermine the 2026 midterms by weaponizing the Justice Department, intimidating election officials, and making it harder to vote in swing districts. His White House plan includes deploying federal law enforcement to “monitor” polling places, targeting election workers with harassment, and demanding voter data from states — something the Justice Department has already begun doing in 19 states under his administration. I guess “states’ rights” doesn’t apply to states’ constitutional right to oversee their own elections.

This isn’t some quiet backroom plot — People’s World obtained details of a strategy explicitly designed to end free elections in both 2026 and 2028. The tactics are a greatest-hits album of voter suppression: purging voter rolls, challenging ballots en masse, rewriting election rules at the state level, and placing loyalists in key positions so that, if results don’t go Trump’s way, they can simply refuse to certify them.

And Trump’s rhetoric is keeping pace with his plans. In a recent interview, he refused to commit to accepting election results in 2026 — the same playbook he ran in 2016, 2020, and 2024 — only this time he’s building the infrastructure to make his refusal stick.

Across the country, efforts to disenfranchise voters have been popping up under the guise of “election security.” Take Michigan, for example, where groups are collecting petition signatures to impose stricter voter ID laws to prevent non citizen voting. Except the state had just 16 instances of non-citizens voting in 2024, that’s 0.00028% of the state’s total votes.

Trump is now doing the same, making bold claims of fraud where statistically there is none in order to seize control of national elections.

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Trump 2028

All of this would be bad enough if the goal were just holding onto power in Congress in 2026. But Trump has made it clear that he’s thinking further ahead. Reports from NBC News and Newsweek outline how he and his allies are pushing the idea of overturning the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit. They’re testing the waters with supporters, shaping the narrative so that when the time comes, it feels “reasonable” for Trump to stay on. The MAGAs are already eating it up:

I’m already seeing many on the left laugh this off, saying “well if Trump runs for a third term, Obama will jump in and kick his ass.” To be fair, polling backs that up. Trump would be destroyed in a general election against Obama — and the MAGAs know that.

That’s why the proposed change to presidential term limits would specifically apply to presidents who haven’t served consecutive two terms. The proposal would be tailor-made for Trump, allowing him to run again while blocking out rivals like Obama.

Rand Paul has already defended the idea in public, and polls show a disturbing chunk of Republicans are fine with it. Trump himself is selling “Trump 2028” merch on his website. This is the authoritarian dream scenario: rewrite the rules so the leader you want can stay in power indefinitely, while ensuring the opposition never gets the same chance.

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The Pattern We Can’t Ignore

None of this is happening in isolation. From the DOJ’s unprecedented demands for voter data to open discussions about changing presidential term limits, every move fits into a single, authoritarian arc. This isn’t just about winning one more election — it’s about making sure future elections can’t remove Trump. Even if he dies in office, he’s laying the groundwork for a MAGA successor to seize power in his place.

We’ve seen versions of this playbook around the world. Just this past week, El Salvador removed term limits, allowing President Nayib Bukele to stay in power indefinitely. Yes, the same Nayib Bukele who Trump has buddied up with as he sends immigrants to a prison death camp in El Salvador. Autocrats like this hollow out democratic institutions, criminalize opposition, and rewrite the constitution to keep the ruling party in power. We used to think it couldn’t happen here. That illusion is gone.

If we want 2026 and 2028 to be real elections — not staged coronations — we need to be organizing now. The fight isn’t just to stop Trump from winning the next race. It’s to stop him from turning America into a place where races don’t matter because the outcome is already decided.

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