This is how Trump is already threatening the midterm elections

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the meetings, but an official not authorized to speak on the record told WIRED at the time: “The White House does not comment on mysterious meetings with unnamed staff.”

At the same time, Trump also sought to clear officials of any wrongdoing in the wake of the 2020 election. Last year, Trump gave “Complete, complete and unconditional“Pardoning a list of people who tried, and failed, to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election. In recent months, Trump has pressured Colorado Governor Jared Polis to release him.” Tina Petersthe former county clerk in Mesa County, Colorado, who became a hero to right-wing election deniers when she facilitated a security breach while updating her county’s election management system software.

Peters was convicted of four felonies, but Trump has campaigned in recent months to have her released, even going so far as to say he “pardoned” her, even though he does not have the authority to do so given she was convicted on state charges.

Interfering on Election Day

Although Trump has not announced specific plans to deploy troops to polling sites or seize voting machines, he and his administration are certainly indicating that such action is not unlikely.

In January Trump He lamented The National Guard not confiscating certain voting machines after the 2020 election. In early February, White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt He said She told reporters that while she had not heard Trump specifically discuss that possibility, she could not “guarantee that an ICE agent will not be at your polling place in November.” (The question was in response to former White House adviser Steve Bannon who said: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be surrounding the ballot box this November. We will not sit here and let you steal the country again… We will never let the election be stolen again.”)

Earlier this month, during his confirmation hearing to head the Department of Homeland Security, Sen. Markwayne Mullen said he would be willing to deploy ICE to polling sites to address a “specific threat.”

The result of the threats and dog whistles issued by the Trump administration is that those conducting elections in states across the country They are indeed war games What happens if ICE or the National Guard shows up at their voting locations.

Michael McNulty, policy director at Issue One, a nonprofit that tracks the influence of money in politics, also points to the fact that the Justice Department sent observers to oversee the November elections in New Jersey and California, even though no federal elections were held. “The concern is that this could become a massive deployment of Justice Department observers in 2026, who might do something more, whether that’s intimidation, or interfering with local election officials, to get data to corroborate conspiracy theories,” McNulty tells WIRED.

FBI raids

On January 28, the FBI raided and executed an election office in Fulton County, Georgia search warrant Which allowed it to confiscate ballots, ballot photos, tabulation tapes, and voter lists related to the 2020 election. Affidavit of search warrantwhich was revealed a few weeks ago, shows that the FBI relied on the work of Kurt Olsen, a lawyer hired by the administration to investigate election security in October and who has a long history of working with some of the country’s biggest election deniers, including Patrick Byrne, Mike Lindell, and Karey Lake. Olsen’s claims are based on debunked and previously investigated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

The raid also featured the presence of Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, who, According to The Guardian newspaperHe conducted a parallel investigation into the 2020 election with Trump’s apparent tacit approval.