THE SUPREME COURT GAVE US A START this week with what looked, at first glance, like a win for Trump’s efforts to suppress mail-in ballots.
asserted
what → give → ballots
But, as Andrew Egger explained, that isn’t quite what happened.
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what → explain → ?
In broad outline, the Court stayed a lower court injunction while the legality of Trump’s attempted interference will be decided later.
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legality → stay → interference
After the 2024 immunity ruling, you’d be ill advised to assume anything about this Court.
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you → advise → Court
The Roberts Court undermined that key principle.
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Court → undermine → principle
And here too, it seems an open-and-shut case that the Constitution grants power over elections to the Congress and the states, not to the executive branch.
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Constitution → seem → branch
But we’ll see.
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we → see → ?
Still, the Court’s little summer fright is a good reminder that early voting will begin in some places in as little as four weeks, and while the polls and projections look good for Democrats, this is not an ordinary election year.
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this → begin → Democrats
Trump is weakened and flailing, yes, but he remains determined to prevent a free and fair election in November if he possibly can.
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he → weaken → November
And he does not lack for lackeys.
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he → lack → lackeys
The Supreme Court touched on just one of his efforts to subvert the election: his executive order directing the Postal Service to work with states to determine whether voters requesting mail-in ballots were citizens.
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voters → touch → ballots
Since 2025, the Justice Department has demanded voter rolls from forty-eight states.
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Department → demand → states
Nearly all states are resisting and the matter is in litigation.
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matter → resist → litigation
Recall that after immigration officers shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and feelings were running high, the administration didn’t express regret or apologize.
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administration → recall → regret
Nor did they announce an investigation.
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they → announce → investigation
Instead, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Gov. Tim Walz a letter offering to suspend Operation Metro Surge if Minnesota agreed to end its sanctuary city policies and hand over its voter registration rolls and the names and addresses of its Medicaid and SNAP enrollees.
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Minnesota → send → enrollees
And here you thought the ICE raids were all about finding the “worst of the worst.”
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raids → think → worst
Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in Trump’s first term, became a target of his wrath because he truthfully testified that the 2020 election was free and fair.
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election → become → wrath
In the second term, Trump has gutted the agency Krebs had helmed, denying to states and the federal government key tools to detect foreign election interference.
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Krebs → gutte → interference
Strange priority for someone who is so consumed with anger at the accusation that he benefited from Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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he → consume → election
In July, the president announced a major primetime address that would contain a “bombshell” and then rambled incoherently for what seemed like hours about an “unprecedented election security nightmare.”
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what → announce → nightmare
It was China, he claimed, that had actually intervened in the 2020 election.
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that → claim → election
The speech was immediately forgotten, but perhaps it ought not to be.
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it → forget → ?
Trump rarely gives primetime speeches.
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Trump → give → speeches
He may have been preparing the ground for some declaration to come.
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He → prepare → declaration
Meanwhile, Trump instructed Republicans in red states to engage in naked, midcycle gerrymandering.
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Trump → instruct → gerrymandering
There was no pretense that this was an effort to respond to Democratic gerrymandering.
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this → be → gerrymandering
Several states with Democratic majorities like California and Virginia had recently taken steps to limit partisan gerrymandering.
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states → take → gerrymandering
Regarding Texas, which was the first state to salute smartly and carry out Trump’s wishes, Trump said: “Just a simple redrawing; we pick up five seats.”
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we → regard → seats
Trump has never ruled out using force to affect the election outcome.
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Trump → rule → outcome
He attempted it with the Capitol mob in 2021, and even in the past year and a half, he has expressed regret that he didn’t take Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s advice and use troops to confiscate every voting machine in the country in 2020.
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he → attempt → 2020
Asked in May whether he would consider using the National Guard or ICE to patrol polling places, he said, “I’d do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.”
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we → ask → elections
In February of this year, he told talk-show host (and former deputy director of the FBI) Dan Bongino that Republicans “should take over the voting in at least many—fifteen places.
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Republicans → tell → places
The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
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Republicans → nationalize → voting
And in a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump mused that we might pause our elections “if we happen to be in a war with somebody.”
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we → muse → somebody
Trump’s factotums have also signaled a certain insouciance about the possibility of sending armed officers to polling places.
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factotums → signal → places
At his confirmation hearing, Todd Blanche asked: “Why is there an objection to sending ICE to polling stations?
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Blanche → ask → stations
Illegals can’t vote.
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Illegals → vote → ?
It doesn’t make any sense.”
Feigned confusion to one side, Blanche knows exactly why sending ICE to polling places would be outrageous.
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sending → make → places
After a two-year spree of arrests, manhandling, family separations, detentions, deportations, and even executions of Hispanic-looking people and others, it would be completely understandable that Hispanic citizens might hesitate to exercise their right to vote if they feared being wrongly caught up in an ICE enforcement action.
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they → look → action
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
