Trump's Attack on Voting Rights
Published on June 21, 2026
How Trump's Ego and Project 2025 Reinforce Each Other
When we think about what will happen in post-Trump America, it’s important to remember that Trump II’s objectives and successes are the consequence of a fortuitous combination two factors, only one of which will go away in 2028: Trump’s ego and the MAGA movement (including think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, a phalanx of online influencers, and cult voters). Trump’s boundless desire to dominate everything, including our political system, aligns him with MAGA’s plan to create a powerful
executive that can impose its vision of the good society on us. In the swirl of current news – Trump’s cave to Iran, the triumph of green algae over Trump’s redo of the reflecting pool, Giorgia Meloni’s battle over Trump’s claim she submissively begged him for a photo...it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.
Here’s a potentially terrifying example of Trump/MAGA’s drive toward autocracy happening right before our eyes: the attempt to impose federal control of our elections, a power the Constitution reserves to the states.
The American system of elections has been in Trump’s crosshairs since the 2020 election. Because he, Trump, couldn’t have lost an election, the fault must lie with an electorate that includes a lot of the wrong people. How do we know they’re the wrong people? Because they didn’t vote for Trump and
therefore aren’t real Americans. They must be culled from the voter rolls so Trump can win.
Trump/MAGA are taking a multi-pronged approach. Inspired by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025’s proposal to make use of a century-old civil rights law to “to investigate and prosecute those who help others exercise their right to vote — namely, election officials and voter registration groups,” more than 100 FBI agents executed a massive law enforcement effort on June 11 in Ohio involving simultaneous search warrants, door knocks, and surprise interrogations. Its target — a nonprofit running successful voter registration programs aimed at racial minorities, the formerly incarcerated, and college students (See the Brennan Center and Democracy Docket).
And, as Joyce Vance reports, Trump has been issuing Executive Orders to (1) to compile a federal list of eligible voters, which is clearly unconstitutional, and (2) command the US Post Office, which is not under his control, to usurp state-run election systems by requiring states to send mail-in ballots only to people on the federal list. Luckily for him, Trump’s personal lawyer is running the Department of Justice.
(Note: the LCI website’s Ways to Fight Back section will be tracking efforts to stop Trump/MAGA’s efforts to control elections.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/opinion/trump-pratt-voter-fraud republicans.html?smid=em-share
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/whats-next-elections-under-project-2025-agenda
https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/the-fbis-raid-on-free-and-fair-elections/
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-executive-order-to-restrict-vote
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/trumps-new-attempt-to-keep-you-from