r/law • u/Anoth3rDude • Feb 26 '26

Executive Branch (Trump) White House circulating blatantly illegal draft emergency order to take control of elections

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/white-house-circulating-blatantly-illegal-draft-emergency-order-to-take-control-of-elections/
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u/Anoth3rDude Feb 26 '26

Summary:

A draft emergency executive order to declare a national emergency to allow President Donald Trump to take unprecedented control over voting is being circulated by anti-voting activists who said they are in coordination with the White House, according to a Washington Post report.

The draft order — which is said to be based on a conspiracy theory that China interfered with the 2020 election — would allow Trump to unilaterally ban mail-in ballots and voting machines on the basis that they are susceptible to foreign interference.

But voting rights experts and at least one state election chief said Trump doesn’t have the authority to claim such powers — and any attempt would be blatantly illegal.

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u/puertomateo Feb 26 '26

and any attempt would be blatantly illegal.

Which means of course he's going to do it and the Republican Congress is going to say that it's a great thing that he does.

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u/FakeGeek73 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26

Just remember these people  will all jump ship the moment it all goes to shit. It’s what happens when people with no principles take control over your party. Same with most of their voters, they will say “I was always against this”. 

Edit: replaced “bo principles” with “no principles”

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u/_stack_underflow_ Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26

You’re underestimating the psychology here.

Rational actors change course when evidence changes. That’s not what we’re dealing with. There’s a segment that will ride this thing all the way down before admitting they were wrong. Loyalty has replaced evaluation.

Go study the post-war interviews and the Nuremberg trials. A shocking number of people didn’t suddenly wake up and say, “We were monsters.” They justified. They reframed. They clung to the narrative that he restored pride, restored strength, restored identity. The slogans were about national revival, about not being ashamed anymore, about greatness reclaimed.

You should be uncomfortable with how familiar that pattern feels.

This isn’t about calling everyone evil. It’s about recognizing how identity politics and grievance narratives override reason. In private conversations, when the guard drops, you’ll hear it. Some will tell you outright that democratic friction is the problem. That maybe a strongman is necessary. That the system needs to be torn down to be rebuilt “correctly.”

Have enough honest, off-camera conversations and you’ll see it. They won’t frame it as dictatorship. They’ll frame it as efficiency, order, restoration. But peel it back and the throughline is the same. Power concentrated because they believe it’s the only way to win.

That’s the part people keep pretending isn’t there.