Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency

[demmiblue]

Source: WaPo

Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue. The White House declined to elaborate on Trump’s plans.

“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin went on. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/trump-elections-executive-order-activists/

---

“.. a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.”

@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 2026-02-26T17:18:09.496Z

[dweller]

1. Russia Russia Russia

Is a hoax , tho …


wadda crock


✌🏻

[slightlv]

18. Yeah, if he wants Russian interference into elections investigated

and "boxed in"... I suggest we start with HIM and his 2016 run! We ALL know Russia interfered with that election by giving him and his buddies billions in dollars, mobs of bots, and world propaganda.

Furthemore, add in this last major election. Musk may SAY he's an American... but he should be deported as a treasonous South African immigrant for all the digital/technical election engineering he did to make trump the winner.

They just will NOT be happy until they take away women's right to vote. I realize we're not the only ones who'll come up short... any elderly citizen will have the same and different issues as women, as well as legal immigrants. It will come to the point where they actually proclaim what the originalists wanted... only white men who owned property can vote.

I know most of us are law-abiding, peaceful people. But some days, it's so hard not to lost myself in a fantasy of violence against him... by anyone... but especially by his "own" people who "finally" see the light that he's dissed and used them from the very beginning. When MAGAs get mad, they truly get violent.

[Frasier Balzov]

2. Trump can count on which SCOTUS justices for this?

SCOTUS had better be ready to act quickly if he tries this at the last minute.

[TheRickles]

6. Maybe he alienated enough of them with his recent comments that they're no longer in his back pocket.

[poli-junkie]

3. K & R!

[twodogsbarking]

4. Not unlike Jan 6 he said he would do it and he did.

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. And he failed. Nt

[Wuddles440]

56. Disagree!

They (MAGATs) actually ultimately succeeded in their original objective by eventually taking control of the federal government, dismantling agencies, and eliminating any independent oversight. January 6, 2021 proved that actual violence by their fanatical supporters, or even the future prospect of such, is an effective means to instill fear in the opposition and intimidate those contemplating any accountability for criminal behavior. With the Project 2025 blueprint, they had four years to refine and develop the necessary infrastructure to aggressively implement the destruction of our democratic republic once Drumpf resumed power. The moral, ethical, cultural, societal, and institutional damage that has already occurred is generational and will take a herculean effort to restore this nation.

[angrychair]

5. One signature away

From no more elections.

Don't worry, I'm sure someone will send a sternly worded letter and all will be better.

[Fiendish Thingy]

8. Or he will be ignored

Just like all his other election related EO’s have been ignored.

[angrychair]

9. The difference here

Is he can declare an emergency and federalize the national guard or use his Gestapo ice agents or just deploy the military and station them outside every polling station to "check" IDs before they are allowed to vote.

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. Physically impossible

Even if he withdrew every service member from overseas, reassigned every fighter jet pilot, and emptied the entire US fleet, there would not be enough troops to control every polling place in the nation.

And that presumes there would be no resistance from the states, the courts, congress or the people.

[dpibel]

33. Check your math

As of 2022, there were around 89,000 polling places in the U.S.

As of March 2025, there were 1.32 million active duty members of the US miltary.

To "control every polling place in the nation" would not, by any stretch of the imagination, require the drastic measures you claim.

I'm not saying it's likely to happen.

But If you want to convince those you characterize as doomers that their concern is silly, best do it with real arguments.

[dpibel]

61. Seriously. Simple math.

You believe it would take more than 14.8 military personnel to control a polling place?

I think two would suffice, given their armaments and training.

[summer_in_TX]

63. He doesn't need to control every polling place in the nation.

Not even every one in the 14 states he has said should be taken over.

Just in the blue areas of those states, and maybe just enough polling places to change the outcome in the state.

He'll feel confident the red states will go his way.

[Fiendish Thingy]

64. False

As elections over the past year have shown, predicting which districts are “solid red” Will be nearly impossible.

Numerous 2024 Trump+20 districts have swung 15-30 points or more towards Dems in elections over the past year- see GA and TX for examples.

Nothing can stop the Blue Tsunami in November- that’s why republicans are panicking and grasping at straws for solutions, and they have none.

[summer_in_TX]

72. Why is Trump so Desperate to Keep Us From Voting?

https://open.substack.com/pub/reframingamerica/p/hurdles

Our mission is to make the election debate about the Epstein files, and make American citizens so angry about Trump’s placing hurdles in between them and their ballot box that they will march through hell or high water to vote.

Worth reading this brilliant piece by someone who understands how to use frames to reset the agenda of the election debate Donald Trump and Republicans are trying to set on their own terms.

Every time we try to make the case that Trump and Republicans are lying about election fraud, our arguments just trigger more concern about election fraud. But this? It has the beauty of being true.

[maxrandb]

65. He doesn't need to control all the polling places, just those in Blue areas

Anyone who thinks we are getting out of this shitshow without blood and sacrifice is deluding themselves.

It's past time to prepare for the fight that is coming...and it is coming.

It was inevitable the minute this fuckstick was put back into power.

Stop trying to find "common ground" with your MAGAt family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and fellow parishioners, and start realizing that they would gladly murder your family while they slept, or at least, shoot your family in the face on the streets of America.

He fucking told us what he would do, and they fucking voted for him anyway.

There's no "coming back" from this shit...there's only COMING THROUGH it.

[Fiendish Thingy]

67. False

As elections over the past year have shown, predicting which districts are “solid red” Will be nearly impossible.

Numerous 2024 Trump+20 districts have swung 15-30 points or more towards Dems in elections over the past year- see GA and TX for examples.

Nothing can stop the Blue Tsunami in November- that’s why republicans are panicking and grasping at straws for solutions, and they have none.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

16. Ya know, even though I might agree with a lot of your posts,

it gets so tiring listening to you post nothing but negative comments, respectfully, try posting positive comments for those of us actually trying to make a difference, we can, and will, defeat this Nazi regime through people power.

[angrychair]

21. It's not negative, it's awareness

A significant portion of the people on websites like this know at least some of what is happening.

The point is about awareness. It's hard to have conversations about stuff like this if no one talks about it.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

28. I get it, but this negativity day after day is not helping at all, we need to concentrate on the positive

people power, which, at this time and place, seems to be working.
Just a friendly piece of advice my friend.

[AverageOldGuy]

60. Agreed

I'm with you, Old Marine.

I'm 81, been retired from the Army for 31 years after almost 30 in uniform including tour in the bush in Vietnam.

I will vote in 2026 and every following year as long as I am breathing and the only way Guard, Active, Reserve, ICE, CBP, or anything else Trump throws at me will keep me from voting is if they physically beat the shit out of me. I will vote unless they kill me and that is not bravado or braggadocio . . . it's a promise.

I WILL VOTE AND I WILL NOT BE STOPPED.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

71. I'm with you brother.

[ColoringFool]

46. With All Due Respect, Unsolicited Advice Ain't Why We're Here. J/S.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

47. The same could be said of you with this post.

Have a great weekend.

[sheshe2]

77. I agree with you, MCE.

Texas is one of the ones that may be kickin' Maggot ass. They might actually do this. It is not just the blue states he needs to worry about!

Link to tweet

I am depressed as all get out, however I am standing with the people trying to kick some MAGAs out for good.

Jeebus C if we can flip seats in Texas.

I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.

Molly Ivins

https://www.azquotes.com/quote/359795

[Jack Valentino]

43. and he better not drag his shitty ass out into public view...

[creon]

69. An EO would have no efect.

Each state runs ils' own election.
Trump cannot cancel election.

[Fiendish Thingy]

70. Exactly. Nt

[creon]

74. No panic

He cannot do it

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. Declaring a national emergency won't give Trump power over elections

States have, and will continue to control their elections, just as they did following 9/11, and during every war, including the Civil War.

[angrychair]

10. He doesn't need it to be legal

He just needs the justification to put armed troops outside every polling station. He just has to do it in such a way that by the time any court gets around to making a decision that the midterm elections will already be over.

To be frank, he doesn't even have to listen to the courts. The DOJ is overtly ignoring 70+ court orders and absolutely nothing has happened.

If the court orders them to stop who, specifically, is going to enforce those orders? The DOJ? 😂

[Fiendish Thingy]

15. So sorry to hear you have succumbed to defeatist Doomerism

Despite acting with lawless impunity on a daily basis, This administration has been stalled, stymied or restrained numerous times over the past year.

No troops were deployed in Chicago or Portland

Kilmer Garcia is free on US soil

Little Liam and his father are free and back in Minnesota.

And those are just the headline grabbers.

He just needs the justification to put armed troops outside every polling station. He just has to do it in such a way that by the time any court gets around to making a decision that the midterm elections will already be over.

You don’t seem to understand the physical logistics of “putting armed troops outside every polling station”. The troops have to be transported, housed, fed etc. It’s not something that can be done quickly and quietly, in secret overnight.

It’s also a physical impossibility to do it outside every polling place, and a strategic impossibility to accurately choose which places would be the most important to disrupt, given that 2024 red Trump districts have been swinging 15-30 points towards the Dems in elections over the past year.

Trump may attempt to defy the laws of the land, but nobody can defy the laws of physics.

To the rest of the folks still in the reality-based community, never forget this one absolute truth:

Trump is not omnipotent, and the states and the people are not powerless

[MarineCombatEngineer]

17. Lately, that's all this member posts is negative,

I agree with some of the posts, but the negativity is becoming tiresome.

[Fiendish Thingy]

19. It is possible to acknowledge the daily horrors of this administration without accepting all is lost. Nt

[MarineCombatEngineer]

20. Agreed. nt

[Jack Valentino]

44. In a nation of 330 million people, he couldn't put armed troops outside every polling station

even if he wanted to.... it would be demographically IMPOSSIBLE!

[angrychair]

45. Not necessarily

He could federalize each state's NG and use them. He could just threaten them with a GCM if they don't comply to his orders.

Of course states could fight it but by the time the case is heard in court the election is already long over.

[Jack Valentino]

62. And national and state troops could just refuse to obey illegal orders---

and it IS against the law to station troops outside of polling places.....

[dpibel]

58. Please look at the numbers in Post 33

And explain to me the impossibility.

330 million people has nothing to do with it.

The issue is 89,000 polling places vs. more than a million active duty military, 86% of whom are stationed in the U.S. Not to mention reserves and National Guard.

The idea, after all, would not be to shut down polling stations. It would be to decrease the likelihood that black and brown people would show up to vote.

[quaint]

29. Can they separate federal offices from the states' and make their rules that way, two ballots?

[Fiendish Thingy]

30. Nope

1. Constitution say states run elections, period

2. A “national emergency” around foreign interference wouldn’t just apply to federal elections- the Chinese might care about who wins the race for dog catcher in Perryton TX.

He will fail.

[quaint]

31. Thanks, paranoia strikes deep.

[samsingh]

36. this

[tonekat]

11. I smell smoke...

...smells like right wing owned businesses being flambeed.

[Qutzupalotl]

12. Weird that China would interfere in 2020 but not 2024.

Or maybe we're all paying for Trump's insecurity and inability to accept a loss.

[AZ8theist]

24. Or his pathological lying.

[Bayard]

32. I've never heard of China being involved in U.S. elections

Where did that come from?

Of course, if I haven't heard of something, it doesn't exist!

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. That was part of the Great Arizona Ballot and Snipe Hunt - "bamboo fibers"

Arizona Republicans hunt for bamboo-laced China ballots in 2020 ‘audit’ effort

Arizona Republicans are examining whether there is bamboo fiber in ballots that were used in the 2020 election, an activist assisting with the ongoing audit of the ballots told reporters this week. The latest claim underscores how rightwing conspiracy theories continue to fuel doubt about the results of the results.

“There’s accusation that 40,000 ballots were flown in to Arizona and it was stuffed into the box and it came from the south-east part of the world, Asia, and what they’re doing is to find out whether there’s bamboo in the paper,” John Brakey, a longtime election audit advocate, told reporters.
...
The search for bamboo fibers illustrates how the latest GOP audit of all 2.1m ballots cast in Maricopa county, home to a majority of Arizona voters, is elevating absurd claims about the 2020 election. After election day, rightwing activists falsely claimed that China had imported ballots to tip the election for Biden and that those ballots could be identified because there was bamboo in the paper. Earlier, workers were using UV lights to examine ballots; while the purpose of doing so was never clear, there was a conspiracy theory after the election that Trump had watermarked ballots (the UV examinations have stopped).
...
One of the people who spread the lie about China dumping ballots, according to Slate, was Javon Pulitzer, a treasure hunter and inventor, who is reportedly assisting with the Maricopa county audit. Though it’s not clear in what capacity Pulitzer is assisting, Brakey told reporters on Tuesday that the machines capturing the microscopic images of the ballots were linked to Pulitzer. “This guy is nuts,” he said. “He’s a fraudster … It’s ridiculous that we’re doing some of this.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/06/arizona-republicans-bamboo-ballots-audit-2020

Yes, it had the same credibility as the Italian Satellite Election Theft, but that hasn't stopped them before, so it won't now. They need to be locked up to deter them.

[Bayard]

50. Oh, THAT evidence

[orangecrush]

22. Bring it

[samsingh]

23. i don't believe there is any statute that allows trump to take charge of elections

he may wish he did, but he does not. The States run elections.

[BComplex]

25. When are they going to report how trump/musk/silicon valley hackers

messed with the 2024 election?
Huh?

[2naSalit]

26. If he...

Wags that dog any harder shit will start flying out of his diaper in public.

[SSJVegeta]

27. Is there a clause in the constitution that overrides article 1 section 4 clause 1

...under emergency powers?

[muriel_volestrangler]

34. "Urged" by a bunch of idiot losers with no official positions who bullshitted about "stolen elections" before

Is this really "news"? The named activists are Jerome Corsi, a by-word for election bullshit, and Peter Ticktin, Tina Peters' lawyer - ie another known election bullshit artist. What they are suggesting is not "news". And before you think "but this is in the Washington Post", remember that Jeff Bezos has converted that to a propaganda rag, so that he can get government contracts. This article is a devious attempt to make a claim that Trump can take over elections look viable.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

37. The emergency is in his diapers.

[KPN]

40. Bingo!

[Orrex]

38. Holy shit why doesn't he just fucking die already?

[Baitball Blogger]

39. I hope China gets invested enough to produce evidence that Trump is a buffoon.

[PATRICK]

41. Some shit is coming the USPS way

but messing with and prohibiting use of the mail for elections puts all his appointed people in administration on the spot, especially if he wants them to cover themselves with crime or allow seizures or prohibition of state ballots. Maybe it's just our USPS Chinese agents? Remember a lot of the GOP like to use mail-ins, including GOP candidates. Any resistance will only sow some chaos, which is the one advantage that Orange Nero might get. Then it's the last ditch discrediting and withholding of results, not seating the elected and generally finally freezing the government into real paralysis- or more real than it is already?

Not that he will have a moment of sanity or true patriotism any time this side of Hell, but it his failures and incompetence and shredding of his own federal agencies work very hard against the idea that anything will succeed in the worst way. Just the usual crap from the positively absolutely crappiest government America has ever had.

Those supportive goons making an obvious false and utterly hypocritical(mad)justufucation to overthrow elections are committing high bar treason. High bar going for the world record.

[Jack Valentino]

42. The ONLY 'national emergency' is TRUMP!---

anybody who could shut his fucking mouth would be a 'national hero',
and I would market their face upon t-shirts and posters!

[travelingthrulife]

48. Another fake emergency. These people belong in jail. They are criminals.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

49. This is the same Peter Ticktin that's the lawyer for Tina Peters

and who threatened CO. State officials unless Peters was released and who now claims that Trumpedos's pardon of Peters should be upheld and she should be released, even though it's not a lawful pardon.

[orangecrush]

55. Thanks for the background

Another insurrectionist en route to a prison cell himself.

[no_hypocrisy]

51. Well gee whiz! It sure wasn't an "emergency" when Elon Musk

made sure that Trump "won" in 2024.

What changed?

[Fiendish Thingy]

57. Kooky CT nonsense

If Musk was so powerful, how come his candidate lost the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race that he invested so much time, money and ego into?

If he couldn’t flip one race in WI, how did he manage to flip multiple states in 2024 undetected?

(Please don’t answer that - I’ve already heard the “forensic statistical analysis” theories)

We must stay firmly rooted in fact based reality in order to fight this regime.

2024 election denialism is as toxic as 2020 election denialism.

[bucolic_frolic]

52. There's going to be an EMERGENCY in NOVEMBER!!!

How is it an emergency if you saw it coming 8 months out?

The "emergency" is he might lose the election, make no mistake.

[AKwannabe]

53. But....Musk in 2024

Is how we got here…

[angryxyouth]

54. Trump dumbass the elections can be rigged

Because he did it himself, which is how he became president the second time. One of the main topics of his state of the union speech was getting rid of mail in ballots, this was also Putin’s concern when they met in Alaska. The reason for this is because mailing ballots are much harder to manipulate. Work done by nonprofits to audit voter data in swing states shows that there were less malicious anomalies in the mail in ballots then in the electronic voting machine and tabulators. In the electronic voting machines statewide anomalies were founded that were malicious and did not reflect human voting patterns. If you would like to see the charts of graphs of the election data of the state and miscellaneous counties that did audit, go to the YouTube page of the election through alliance or their.org website or their Substack. There’s also some very interesting reading at cheap one on Substack.

[Grins]

59. If China interfered in 2020, successfully, then they would have in 2024; no?

And you know who is not the rightful president.

[muriel_volestrangler]

66. Trump Officials Attended a Summit of Election Deniers Who Want the President to Take Over the Midterms

I was sceptical above, because this looked, from the WP, like just a bunch of nutters "urging" the crap. But now ProPublica, a good news source, has evidence that White House officials have met the loons:

Several high-ranking federal election officials attended a summit last week at which prominent figures who worked to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election pressed the president to declare a national emergency to take over this year’s midterms.

According to videos, photos and social media posts reviewed by ProPublica, the meeting’s participants included Kurt Olsen, a White House lawyer charged with reinvestigating the 2020 election, and Heather Honey, the Department of Homeland Security official in charge of election integrity. The event was convened by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and attended by Cleta Mitchell, who directs the Election Integrity Network, a group that has spread false claims about election fraud and noncitizen voting.
...
The summit followed other meetings and discussions between administration officials and activists — many not previously reported — stretching back to at least last fall, according to emails and recordings obtained by ProPublica. The coordination between those inside and outside the government represents a breakdown of crucial guardrails, experts on U.S. elections said.
...
Five of six federal officials who attended the summit didn’t answer questions about the event from ProPublica.

https://www.propublica.org/article/election-denier-summit-trump-midterms

[creon]

68. Nothing to do with it.

The federal Govt does NOT run elections.
Each state runs its' own election.

[pecosbob]

73. What's absolutely disgusting is that the MSM's actually cheerleading this fringe talking point.

Marc Elias has the skinny on this...says we need to take this seriously but he'll kick their ass in court. A crackpot theory that wouldn't 'unlock' anything. SC has already said IEEPA doesn't give him authority to enact tariffs...they now claim that very act gives them authority to interfere with elections.

[Blue_Roses]

75. OMG!! WHAT A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT!

Everyday it's something. We can never just have any peace from this man. He has NO business messing with the elections, especially with the load of crap he's trying to shovel our way


.

[Beartracks]

76. Trump *is* the emergency.