(CNN) 鈥� President Donald Trump doesn鈥檛 need any invitation 鈥� or any evidence, really 鈥� to claim that an election is 鈥渞igged,鈥� as he鈥檚 done many times over the last 11 years.
But just imagine for a second that, when his foes did something that Trump claimed amounted to rigging an election, they announced it by saying, 鈥淭his is going to help us win elections!鈥�
Because that鈥檚 what the president has now done, over and over again.
As he鈥檚 pushed a number of executive and legislative actions in recent months 鈥� from nixing the Senate filibuster, to requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship, to eliminating mail ballots 鈥� he鈥檚 repeatedly pitched them as ideas that will help Republicans win the 2026 midterm elections.
And this brutalist political strategy is getting less subtle.
Trump鈥檚 latest missive came on Sunday, after the Supreme Court that Louisiana鈥檚 congressional map is an unconstitutional gerrymander and further chipped away at the Voting Rights Act, potentially allowing Republicans to redraw maps in the South . That could tilt the US House map toward the GOP for years to come.
Trump urged his side to act post-haste.
He called on states 鈥� even those that have already begun voting 鈥� to quickly change their maps for the 2026 election to supposedly comply with the Supreme Court ruling.
鈥淭hat is more important than administrative convenience,鈥� Trump 鈥淭he byproduct is that the Republicans will receive more than 20 House Seats in the upcoming Midterms!鈥�
The first thing to note is that what he鈥檚 pitching was not demanded by the Supreme Court. While its ruling further diminished the Voting Rights Act, it applies only to Louisiana鈥檚 map. It will take time to figure out how it might apply to other states. And it鈥檚 not at all clear how it would be legal for states to invalidate votes that have already been cast.
Trump鈥檚 is an extreme proposal, to say the least.
But it鈥檚 hardly the first time he has pitched such a desperate ploy by invoking midterm gains for the GOP. At a conference of Republican lawmakers in March, Trump told his party that passing his much-prized 鈥淪AVE America Act鈥� 鈥� which would force people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, among other changes 鈥� would 鈥�.鈥�
Trump qualified that by saying, 鈥淚鈥檓 not doing it for this reason at all.鈥�
And yet he keeps mentioning that reason.
In a late February speech in Georgia, he said that his voting changes would mean, 鈥淲e鈥檒l never lose a race. For 50 years, we won鈥檛 lose a race.鈥�
Earlier that month, he told podcaster and former top FBI official Dan Bongino that Republicans should take over voting in specific jurisdictions.
鈥淭he Republicans should say 鈥� we should take over the voting in at least 15 places,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淭he Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.鈥� His comments came less than a week after the FBI had searched an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.
But notice that Trump didn鈥檛 say the federal government should take over the voting, but specifically that Republicans should do it. While the White House argued he鈥檇 been referring to the need for a national voter ID requirement, Trump later told reporters that and that the GOP lawmakers standing behind him in the Oval Office 鈥渟hould do something about it鈥� if a state 鈥渃an鈥檛 run an election.鈥�
In November, Trump said at a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb谩n that Republicans should eliminate the filibuster.
鈥淎nd if we do it, we will never lose the midterms, and we will never lose the general election, because we will have produced so many different things for our people, for the people, for the country, that it would be impossible to lose an election,鈥� he said.
And long before the Louisiana ruling, Trump bluntly pitched his mid-decade gerrymandering push as being about helping Republicans win elections.
He told CNBC at one point that in Texas, 鈥淲e are entitled to five more seats.鈥�
After the Texas map passed, he told Republicans that if they gerrymandered more GOP-leaning seats in other states and eliminated mail-in voting and paper ballots, it would .
鈥淚f we do these TWO things, we will pick up 100 more seats, and the CROOKED game of politics is over,鈥� Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Both parties gerrymander for political benefit. But generally speaking, lawmakers don鈥檛 pitch it as being expressly about that. Trump, though, has shown no compunction about discussing new maps in raw political terms.
And to be clear, what he鈥檚 proposing 鈥� on gerrymandering, at least 鈥� isn鈥檛 a matter of fairness; it鈥檚 about tilting the House landscape in the GOP鈥檚 favor.
While gerrymandering has reduced the number of competitive US House districts, the maps in use have at least produced . Over the last four elections, both parties have won shares of House seats that have been commensurate with their shares of the national two-party vote.
The mid-decade gerrymandering push how Trump and GOP leaders had envisioned, given Democrats鈥� success in fighting back. But now Trump wants to press the advantage in another way after the Supreme Court ruling.
His latest idea is an extremely desperate partisan power grab that would invalidate votes already cast.
But whatever it takes to win an election, it seems.
The-CNN-Wire
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