1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

A reporter asked the president a simple question. Will you accept the results of the midterms, whatever happens? “If they’re honest elections.” The qualifier changes every cycle. In 2016, it was “if I win.” In 2024 it was only if the election was “fair and legal and good.” After more than 60 losses in courts across the country, he still hasn’t accepted 2020. In Trump’s mind, no election in which the GOP loses is honest. And Americans know it. A Post-ABC poll found that just 28 percent of Americans believe he’ll accept the midterm results if Republicans lose. It’s not just the president sowing doubt. The same election denial machine from 2020 and 2024 is already up and running. The Washington Post counted nearly 600 right-wing accounts and podcasts that have pumped out more than 7,000 statements questioning the election. Mentions of non-citizens on the ballots and mail fraud are twice as common as they were in 2024. The usual suspects are involved. Steve Bannon has been saying the Democrats “have to cheat to win.” And Trump himself has made nearly 300 statements questioning elections since taking office. The whole executive branch is in on it. DOJ ordered all 93 U.S. attorney offices to prioritize noncitizen voting cases. DHS launched what it calls a Criminal Voter Fraud Surge, which puts out pictures of blurred suspects in handcuffs almost every day. Unsurprisingly, Politico found they announce the same arrests twice. Monday’s release touted 48 cases; 28 of them had already been announced the week before. Now the facts. Noncitizen voting is illegal and rare. The administration claimed 16,000 in Nevada, sent the state 185 names, and all 185 were citizens. Georgia found 432 possible cases over 30 years. So why all the noise? A Georgetown law professor explained the point: “to have the theories and the filings in place, and the specter of mischief in the air, before the counting starts so that the results can be attacked if, but only if, they don’t come out the right way.” Democrats won’t be caught off guard. Leadership has drawn up a list of 162 ways Republicans could try to mess with the election, and Jim Himes says the intelligence committees are preparing for bogus claims about foreign interference. I saw with my own eyes what this rhetoric can lead to. But that kind of ending isn’t inevitable. Lawyers and lawmakers across the country are doing their homework and getting out in front of attempts to undermine this election. But voters are the ones with the real power, so the election needs to be more decisive to overcome Trump undermining yet another election.