You sure about that?
Virginia is proposing a new congressional map to fight off Republican redistricting, making 10 of 11 seats favorable to Democrats.
It’ll come before voters in April, I believe.
My point being that if a Governor calls out the guard to protect voters, Trump will nationalize them and either order them to support ICE, or send them home.
Trump has to ask the governor for permission unless there are very narrow circumstances (for things like insurrection or rebellion). He has tried the tactic of pretending that those circumstances were in effect, but the SCOTUS has ruled that he can’t do that (which is why he can’t send NG troops into cities to back up ICE). So, unless the governor is willing to acquiesce to Trump’s request, that isn’t an option for Trump.
As I understand it, a state’s National Guard can be initialized to be part of the United States Army, taking away a Governor’s control, and giving it the President. See Central High, 1956.
As noted above and recently affirmed by the Supreme Court, only under limited circumstances. The president doesn’t just get to yell “I declare emergency” and federalize the NG.
I mean, he was certainly trying to do that, which is how it ended up in front of the Supreme Court, but they said “no” in a 6-3 ruling.
I think you replied to the wrong post. My only point was that there are reasons to mess with the polls in the south. There always will be, but 2026 in particular is looking very bad for the Republicans. Even in Texas. Where a Republican held senate seat was flipped in a district TFG won by 17 points in 2024.
On January 5th, 2021 you could’ve said there was never a time in history when an armed lawless mob of rioters would bum-rush the Capitol to disrupt legislative proceedings. But within 24 hours you’d have been proven disastrously wrong. Past performance is never a guarantee of future results.
Trump federalized the DC national guard for 30 days in August 2025 to perform police action. Lower courts tried to enjoin it, but so far Trump has prevailed.
Court orders are a craps shoot, they don’t always go against Trump, and DC obviously has different legal status from the states.
But again: he doesn’t need to hold DC forever. Just long enough to cement the election outcome in his favor. Maybe on Jan 21st 2029, the courts rule that the deployment was flagrantly illegal and he has to stop doing that. Oh well, the election is over and he’s inaugurated. Once Congress certifies him as President, there’s no provision for a do-over. Get comfortable with the term fait accompli.
2 things on this:
- Republicans mess with polls whether there’s a reason or not, because they’re uncomfortable leaving things to chance.
- There’s very much a reason to interfere in southern swing states. Trump just had the FBI raid election offices in Georgia. Suburban Atlanta voters are very much in play again, and Trump has a strong reason to disrupt and discredit the Georgia vote again, as he did in 2020. Florida could be in play as well.
And it’s better than that.
We’re working on passing a referendum that will establish Democratic majorities in 10 of our 11 congressional districts.
Trump picked the WRONG STATE TO FUCK WITH.
Sic semper tyrannis!
Come to Virginia, @carnivorousplant ! Come to Suffolk! It’s a nice place to live.
He’s ineligible to run again. He’s not going to be on the ballot.
So the answer to my question is “no”, then.
This whole conversation is very germane to this thread:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/opinion/trump-nationalize-elections.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KVA.76ke.WYuwUiddRe1j&smid=url-share
(Gift link is to New York Times 31-minute conversation video, and transcript: “The Real Threat Isn’t Trump. It’s the MAGA Apparatus. The round table convenes to debate whether we need to worry about the midterms being free and fair.”)
Among other matters, they discuss how US elections are run at the local (precinct) level, so it’s impossible to “rig” them directly…but MAGA has spent several years inserting folks into positions like poll-watchers, county election officials, etc., so it will be easier for them to delegitimize the results (both before and after Election Day), which could have real consequences – amplified by the knowledge that the Jan 6 insurrectionists were pardoned (though Jamelle Bouie, in particular, is rather optimistic on this score, noting how Trump’s actionable “successes” have tended to be when legal and institutional structures aren’t in place to stop him, e.g. ICE thuggery via one agency where the president really does have power).
ICE agents (or the like) scaring voters away is discussed as well, but doesn’t seem to be a major concern. At one point they note that the local election workers of all stripes – most of them volunteers – are generally proud of their work, and really do try to run them fairly. A lot depends on EVERYONE being vigilant (take the brave folks of Minneapolis as a guiding light), and encouraging our neighbors to vote and participate in the process.
Nah. The answer to that particular question in this particular case is:
Remember: I’d never eaten a blueberry muffin until I finally ate a blueberry muffin.
Or – more to the point: no President in my lifetime actively plotted and attempted to overthrow the legitimately-elected US government, hailing a human flash-bang grenade mob to facilitate it.
Until one did. This one, actually.
And did he fail? Sure. And Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch failed, too (just to anticipate, and point out the fatal logical flaw in, your usual next response), but, AIUI, he went on to do some deeply heinous shit.
Yes, we are. At least in my 25 years doing it in Nebraska. I’ve only been threatened with a gun once and we five fierce older women stared him down and right out of the polling place. Then reported him to the Election Commissioner.
That’s a lot of words to say “no”.
There is no mechanism to just “throw out votes” and the chances of any judge allowing the admin to create one are slim to none.
If person A shows you videotape of four men enjoying Grand Slam Breakfasts at Denny’s at 8:00am, and person B shows you videotape of the same four men, three hours later, robbing a bank, what will you conclude?
So, possible.
Well, I’m not going to conclude that they’re going to steal all the gold from Fort Knox.