Defending the Midterms from Donald Trump

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Amid all the prognostication about which party will emerge triumphant during the midterms, there has also been increasing alarm: Will it be a free and fair election? As soon as Donald Trump returned to office, he began making moves to create disruption—demanding private voter data from states, threatening election officials with jail time, and even seizing ballots from prior elections to investigate alleged fraud. And although, so far, none of the White House’s efforts have threatened to significantly alter the results, the Department of Justice has hinted that there is more to come. The U.S. Attorney General, Todd Blanche, has not ruled out using the force of law to prevent election certifications. Furthermore, a lawsuit from the Trump Administration against the State of Alaska is already under way, before a single vote has even been counted. The reporter Barton Gellman and David Remnick discuss the threats to the midterm elections and Gellman’s new piece, “The State Officials Defending the Midterms from the President.”

Further reading:

• “How ICE Is Targeting the 2026 Midterms,” by Jonathan Blitzer
• “What the Gerrymandering Wars Mean for the Midterms—and 2028,” by Isaac Chotiner
• “The G.O.P.’s Latest Voter-Suppression Plan,” by Sue Halpern
• “Donald Trump Already Knows the 2026 Election Is ‘Rigged,’ ” by Susan B. Glasser