Trump's brazen new power grab
And why it, too, will fail - with our collective help.
In America, we the voters pick our leaders.
And yet, this simple idea that has guided our democracy for centuries, is now being flipped on its head (yet again) by President Trump and his enablers. Earlier this week, the President signed an Executive Order that represents a blatant, unconstitutional attempt to seize control of our elections before the first ballots are even cast. This isn’t just another policy debate; it is a coordinated power grab by an administration that’s become so unpopular it already knows what will happen if it’s left to the will of the people.
The motive behind this move is transparent: MAGA is losing. Instead of trying to earn our votes, the Trump administration is trying to change who gets to vote and how those votes are counted so they can declare themselves the winners. A healthy political party tries to court your vote, but an authoritarian administration tries to keep you from voting at all.
By attempting to dictate election rules from the Oval Office — an area where the President has zero legal or constitutional authority — they are trying to control the outcome of the election to keep maintain one-party rule at any cost.
The President has already tried a federal takeover of our elections by executive order, and our strategic litigation partner Campaign Legal Center (CLC) defeated it in court. Trump then tried to get Congress to pass his executive order into law, but that path is blocked by the filibuster. So now he’s back for a third try, with anexecutive order that once again attempts to bypass the states and Congress by creating a federal “state citizenship list” to determine who is eligible to vote. It even goes as far as trying to weaponize the U.S. Postal Service by ordering them to stop delivering mail-in ballots for anyone not on this new, error-prone federal list.
This is flatly illegal.
The Constitution gives the power to run elections to the states and Congress, not the executive branch. This is just another trick in the book to try and silence the voices of “we the people.”
The Trump Administration is not acting alone; they have a growing number of accomplices helping to execute these rules in real-time. We are seeing a governing strategy that connects voter intimidation to assaults in our streets. From sending masked militia to terrorize neighborhoods to using federal power to retaliate against those who speak out, the message is clear: stay silent or pay the price. They are targeting Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, and immigrant communities the hardest, hoping that fear will follow people from their neighborhoods to the ballot box.
There is also a staggering level of hypocrisy at play. Just last week, President Trump, his wife, and his son all voted by mail in a Florida special election. If voting by mail works for the President and his family, it must work for every eligible American. The claim that these moves are about “election integrity” is a lie used to justify barriers that silence voters. Our elections are already transparent and accurate; the only real threat to them is an administration that lies about the results.
The gravity of this situation is real, but our response is our power. Our movement exists to meet this exact moment. An army of lawyers at Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is mobilizing to respond to assaults on our elections and across the country we’re pushing back against these unlawful acts. We have reason to be hopeful because we keep winning in court. Judges have already stopped previous attempts by this administration to take over elections, and we are confident they will do so again.
Our country is strongest when we refuse to be intimidated and show up to make our voices heard. We will decide our future, we will choose our leaders, and we will ensure that liberty and justice are for all, with no exceptions. Tell the Trump regime: Hands off our vote!