It’s been five years, and Donald Trump still can’t let the 2020 election go. Despite having had half a decade to uncover a smoking gun, not to mention now having full control of the government, he still has nothing.
Even after multiple high-profile court cases involving extremely expensive lawyers, there’s absolutely no proof that there was anything underhanded about the election. Honestly, you’d think that after winning big in 2024, Trump would let this go. After all, he successfully got his revenge against Joe Biden.
But Trump is pathologically incapable of moving on, and yesterday ominously warned that he’s activating the federal government to prevent the Republicans from ever losing to the Democrats again:
Trump: "We can never let what happened in the 2020 election happen again. We just can't let that happen. I know Kash is working on it, everybody is working on it. And certainly Tulsi is working on it. We can't let that happen again to our country." pic.twitter.com/xEjUjELz0p
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 21, 2025
“We can never let what happened in the 2020 election happen again. We just can’t let that happen. I know Kash is working on it, everybody is working on it. And certainly Tulsi is working on it. We can’t let that happen again to our country.”
What Trump means when he says he won’t allow a repeat of the 2020 election is that Democrats won’t be permitted to win again, regardless of what voters want. The Trump administration is attacking democracy on multiple fronts, ranging from permitting states to gerrymander electoral districts, which has the effect of making Democratic votes worth less.
To be clear, what he's saying is that we can never allow either himself or the Republican Party to lose a presidential election again. https://t.co/W3Jx9V1tob
— Damon Linker (@DamonLinker) October 22, 2025
Declaring a “national emergency”
Another major front is simply rewriting election rules in their favor. Trump’s DHS appointee Heather Honey, part of the “Election Integrity” group, has said that Trump can simply declare a “national emergency” around the time of the midterms and then dictate whatever election rules he wants to state and local governments:
NEW: Trump’s team is plotting to declare a fake national emergency to hijack elections.
— Max Flugrath
One top operative says they can “take steps without Congress” and “mandate" election rules for states.@NYTimes' investigation exposes the operatives and the takeover already underway.pic.twitter.com/O5efS6dRpA
(@MaxFlugrath) October 22, 2025
“We have some additional powers that don’t exist right now and therefore we take these other steps without Congress, and we can mandate that states do things.”
The Trump administration is all too well aware that a terrible performance in the 2026 midterms will hamstring any future moves Trump wants to make. Their solution isn’t to try and change their platform to appeal to more voters or improve the economy: it’s to shoot democracy in both knees and ensure that your vote no longer counts.
