this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
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The Washington Post reported that activists are working with the White House on an executive order to declare a “national emergency” over America’s elections and pave the way for a power grab.

“Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting,” reported the Post‘s Isaac Arnsdorf. “President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue.”

Peter Ticktin, a MAGA activist in favor of the executive order, told the Post that “we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” and that “the president has to be able to deal with it,” including by banning mail-in ballots and certain voting machines.

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[–] RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 191 points 1 month ago (3 children)

He's already declared like 30 emergencies.

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 83 points 1 month ago

Those are just called sharts.

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 36 points 1 month ago

He's the boy who cried wolf of presidents.

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Because "emergencies" are the Wild cards given to the Executive Branch by Congress and SCOTUS. There's no clear definition and no boundaries until he's challenged in court or Congress overrules him.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

And if he waits six months before declaring an emergency, there would not be time for the court to annul it

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[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 119 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Man he's really got this civil war speedrun record locked in.

[–] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 72 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Speed run it all the way to the guillotines plz

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (4 children)

The French didn't exactly speed run it themselves.

I'm currently listening to old episodes of the Revolutions podcast, and am midway through the French and it bares no resemblance to what's going on now. Which, when it gets to the reign of terror, might be a good thing... But that's the one part of it that I could see happening again.

A lot of the terror was fueled by a murderous little shit with a bootleg newspaper. There's a reason why lible and slander laws are so powerful in that part of Europe.

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[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 81 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Even if it were true that China stole the election, how is "something happened 6 years ago" an emergency? He won in 2024, so it can't be that effective anymore.

[–] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 46 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It's an emergency because if he leaves it alone Republicans are going to tank hard in the midterms which will mean he loses power and might even be held accountable for his crimes.

[–] Asafum@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago (4 children)

might even be held accountable for his crimes.

HahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahabhababahabababHhahahahahhahaha....

Ughh.... I hate that the thought of aliens coming directly to my house, handing me a winning lotto ticket, while they simultaneously get struck by lightning twice in a row and get bitten by a shark seems 1000000x more likely to happen than for Trump to ever face consequences for his actions.

If anyone even started that process "judge" Aileen Cannon would jump from the top rope and bodyslam the case shut with a "Trump is immune because I say so" ruling like she's been doing this entire time.

:(

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[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He will just never get over the fact that he lost in 2020. And he's willing to make all of America suffer for his butthurt.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

He cheated in 16, he cheated in '20 and still lost. Him being a man who has never competed fairly in his life assumed the Dems cheated harder. Turns out the high number of mail in ballots threw off his scheme and he lost. The time to declare a national emergency over voting was in 2016 after he won. The silent majority doesn't exist. The polls are accurate. He's a fucking loser who aligned himself with adversaries to steal democracy and fuck this country supremely and make the wealth divide even worse. The fact that the Dems went along with him winning in '24 and didn't contest it at all despite the statistical anomalies in swing states is just fucking unbelievable. This ass clown is supposed to be in a cell, but he's the fucking president because Joe and Kamala were fucking spineless. Trump did not win all 7 swing states, and once they nationalize voting, it will be forever rigged, and in Trump's own words, "you'll never have to vote again".

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[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 65 points 1 month ago (11 children)

Another article acting like the executive has any power over elections. They portray this as a warning, but all they're doing is normalizing the idea.

[–] Sciaphobia@sh.itjust.works 61 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The billionaire owned media is normalizing this on purpose.

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 17 points 1 month ago

Well yes. That’s the idea. They’re special and deserve more than one vote. Democracy is foul, to them. One vote per person undermines what they believe regarding themselves.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 40 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This is absolutely the most important thing to keep in mind here.

Remember, this is a memo being circulated by Trump supporters. It's actual legal basis likely sits somewhere around "political fan-fiction."

The same thing happened in 2020. Trump supporters invented completely nonsensical legal justifications for how Trump could sieze power. None of them held water.

Can Trump just ignore the law and declare shit anyway? Sure. Self-coup is always an option in any democracy. But he is deeply unpopular; I don't really see that working out for him, although the process of it not working out certainly might be a very violent one.

Trump tried to self-coup in 2020, and the result absolutely fizzled. It was violent, and messy, and innocent people died, but in the grand scheme of attempted insurrections it was pretty fucking pathetic. He's got a cult of personality, but he's never actually done the work to build the kind of organized support he'd need for something like that.

I'm never going to tell Americans that the danger is over and everything is fine. There has probably never been a more dangerous time for American democracy. But don't mistake that danger for inevitability. While Trump is carving a path of destruction through your government, norms and institutions, he's also bleeding power every single day. You can win this.

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[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 64 points 1 month ago (3 children)

And none of that actually gives him any power to do anything like that.

He is not the States.

[–] glitch1985@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Counting down until he's lying in state.

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[–] Zink@programming.dev 56 points 1 month ago (1 children)

activists

The Washington Post thinks that traitorous conspiracies on the right are equivalent to protests and demonstrations by other types of "activist?"

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 40 points 1 month ago

The same Washington Post owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos? I'm shocked!

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 44 points 1 month ago (8 children)

The Chinese government hates the US and, if they interfered successfully, would have done so to get Trump into office, since that would cause the most damage.

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[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Night of the long knives in 3...2..

[–] zwerg@feddit.org 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This would be where they burn down the ~~Reichstag~~ congress.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Can we please just skip to the part where he eats a bullet in a bunker?

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[–] brownsugga@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago (5 children)

so it's been leaked that they're "working on" an executive order to declare a national emergency?? for the midterms????? you don't have to "work on" declaring an emergency!??!?! it either IS an emergency or it ISN'T.

Dear heaven to think how dumb they think everyone is

wait, everyone might actually BE that dumb

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[–] FarrellPerks@feddit.uk 37 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I'm sat here in Europe watching Trump and his sycophants systematically dismantle American democracy and I'm honestly shocked that they're being allowed to do it.

I'm assuming it's the end if he's allowed to nullify the midterms as he intends, the final remaining shred of democracy will be well and truly gone.

What a sad way to see the "Land of the free" fall.

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[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago (27 children)

Someone please lock Dem leadership in a closet somewhere so people who care can deal with this.

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[–] DandomRude@piefed.social 31 points 1 month ago

The US regime has already committed so many serious crimes by now that I would be surprised if it did not try to establish a dictatorship. If it did not do so, all members of the government would risk prosecution as soon as they were voted out of office, even in a legal system as corrupt as that of the US.

[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The only thing holding a lot of Americans back from violence is the knowledge that that's exactly the excuse the regime wants to declare martial law and suspend elections. If they just jump to suspending fair elections anyway, then there will be nothing to stop the gloves from coming off. The billionaires and Congress creatures better run for their bunkers. Anybody that the people perceive as having a hand in getting us to this point, either through direct action or failure to react, won't be safe.

[–] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The only thing holding a lot of Americans back from violence is the knowledge that that's exactly the excuse the regime wants to declare martial law and suspend elections.

The only things holding Americans back from violence are relatively abundant food, entertainment and comfort. All of which will still continue to exist once free elections are gone. Plus what they replace them with will be branded super duper free elections, and that will be enough for a lot of people.

There is little to no evidence that the 1/3rd of eligible voters who didn't vote in Nov 2024 are any more engaged with what is happening than they were back then.

All they have to do is orchestrate this coup in a somewhat intelligent way that doesn't immediately collapse the economy and they can absolutely pull it off.

Most Americans are not going to fight for abstract rights when their immediate tangible needs are being met.

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[–] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Prediction: None of this so called evidence will ever make an appearance in a court room.

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[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 30 points 1 month ago

Donald Trump is the national emergency.

[–] neuromorph@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

we held elections during a literal civil war. What "emergency" could trump that with all our modern life improvements and.... checks notes. No civil war in America...

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[–] Vieric@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This does concern me frankly. Hopefully its all just his usual limpdick saber rattling. The problem is, if something like this does happen, at this point I don't trust anybody to stop it. Democrats are too busy playing theater and bending the knee to their corporate overlords to oppose anything Trump does at this point past their usual finger wagging and "almost maybe going to send a sternly worded letter at some point" responses. And if the Supreme Court doesn't give him the nod to do this he can just, you know, ignore them. Not like he's faced consequences for that the past... ever.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 15 points 1 month ago (3 children)

they succeeded in 2024, with the help elon and the voting machines, DNC is pretty much complicit.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 28 points 1 month ago (9 children)

The Constitution is extremely clear that elections are the responsibility of the states, and we just saw the Supreme Court back the Constitution against him.

He tried to use the "Emergency" excuse to justify his tariffs, and SCOTUS didn't buy it. They aren't going to buy this emergency either.

[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 24 points 1 month ago

The Supreme Court should not be trusted.

If we’re both putting forth theories then what’s incorrect about assuming the Supreme Court went against him on tariffs so it would seem “fair” when they back him on stealing elections?

After all, they’ve done this exact scenario before.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

How bleak that we have to trust a court that constantly operates in bad faith to save democracy from the guy that hired too many of them.

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[–] AlexLost@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago

States should declare emergencies first and protect themselves from the fed. Elections are handled by each state, not the government.

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 1 month ago (6 children)

His MO has been to use "emergency" as a power grab even when nothing gives him any powers over these issues even if he claims an emergency.

Fuck you, you fucking orange turd. If everything is an emergency, then nothing is.

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[–] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 month ago (3 children)

If this happens and civil war doesn't break out than I fear good people will have lost.

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[–] Ksin@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

By Wikipedias count there are presently 51 on-going national emergencies in USA, 19 of them have been declared by Trump.

The oldest still active one was made by Carter in 1979, it's a sanction on Iran.

[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 20 points 1 month ago

Are we in the greatest American period ever, as claimed during his long-ass speech to the union, or are we in a national emergency? It can't be both.

[–] TerdFerguson@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes

Of course he is, he benefitted from it. America ain't coming back until the people take it back, and that's gonna be done the hard way.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If he starts the civil war by ending our vote, do we get to start hitting Ice agents with our cars?

Also make sure to be going 40 or over or they get back up.

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