Trump Wants to Tilt Congress His Way with Unconstitutional Do-Over of the Census

Aug 08, 2025

The Constitution mandates a census every 10 years to count all “persons” in the United States and assign representation in Congress. Changing that count could tilt the balance of power in Congress—so naturally, that’s what Donald Trump wants to do.

CNBC reports:

“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS,” the president added. …
The announcement also comes amid growing pressure from the White House for Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps in a way that could strengthen the GOP going into the 2026 midterms.
It’s unclear from Trump’s post if he’s envisioning changes to the 2030 census or adding an additional count to take place before that.
The Constitution mandates a national census every ten [years] to determine congressional representation, and the census website states it is “designed to count every resident in the United States.” The 14th Amendment requires a count of “the whole number of persons in each State.” Changes to the census could impact the balance of power in states and the House of Representatives, which are based on total population.

Combined with flagrant Trump-mandated gerrymandering of congressional districts in right-leaning states, this is part of Trump’s attempt to “dissolve the people and elect another,” gerrymandering the entire electorate to give him a stronger grip on power.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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