Trump's Executive Order to Change Voting Rules Is Unconstitutional and Meant to Discredit His Potential Midterm Loss
Donald Trump has pursued so many deeply unpopular policies that Republicans are almost certain to lose a large number of seats and control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. So he is attempting to ensure this cannot happen, first by encouraging blatant gerrymandering in “red states” and now by attempting to set voting rules by executive order.
The New York Times has a report, but first a note.
The main subtitle on this report reads, “The Constitution doesn’t give the president explicit authority over election law.” Actually, the Constitution very explicitly gives authority over election rules to everybody but the president: the states and Congress. See Article I, Section 4, and Article II, Section 1. This is not a subtle difference.
The body of the article repeats the questionable phrasing but at least follows it with a more accurate description:
President Trump said late Saturday that he would issue an executive order to require voter identification for all U.S. elections, a continuation of his efforts to overhaul the nation’s election laws, which he has long attacked and falsely blamed for his 2020 election loss. …
He also reiterated his intention to restrict mail-in voting except for those who are very ill or serving far away in the military, as well as his opposition to voting machines. …
The Constitution gives the president no explicit authority to regulate elections. Rather, it gives states the power to decide the rules of elections, oversee voting and try to prevent fraud. It gives Congress the ability to override state laws on voting. …
Mr. Trump and his allies have started a wide-ranging effort to gain any advance they can ahead of midterm elections, which are set for November 2026.
Trump cannot change election rules by executive order. So what purpose is served by issuing orders he knows will not be followed? It serve to delegitimize the vote in the eyes of his supporters, claim the midterm election is stolen, and attempt to overturn its results—just as he did with the presidential election in 2020.
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.
© The UnPopulist, 2025
Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.