As Trump’s personal popularity reaches record lows, it appears that one or even both Houses of Congress could be controlled by Democrats after January 2027. This has given more credibility to fears that Trump might attempt some kind of coup, as he did on January 1, 2021, to retain control of the government. What would such a coup look like, and how could it be prevented or defeated? I’m writing here a brief reconnaissance, with more questions than answers.
For me, the question of a mid-terms coup moved to the front burner last Monday, when the Supreme Court refused to block Trump’s “executive order” that would radically curtail voting by mail in November. Front-burner status was achieved in part by the (temporary) blocking of a lower court’s blocking of Trump’s obviously un-Constitutional plan to seize control of election management from the states. The other reason for the alarm was the clear lunacy of the Court’s decision, which said that it was too early to hear the case, that the 22 states bringing it did not “have standing,” and that the case would have to wait until someone had been “harmed.” (Like, for example, after the election?)
As argues election-expert Ari Berman, whose interview today on Democracy Now! is linked below, If Trump’s executive order goes into effect, “it could disenfranchise millions of voters in November.” In her dissent from the majority of the Court’s ruling, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson accused the Supreme Court’s conservative majority of injecting “chaos and uncertainty” into the election process. It may be that this was a feature, not a bug, in the Court’s decision last Monday.
A very good guide to how and why Trump wants to steal the election “by any means necessary” was published yesterday by Ralph Nader. You can read it here:
Trump’s Plans to Steal the Elections Are Underway
By Ralph Nader, Truthdig [August 25, 2026]
---- Donald Trump is already taking steps to prepare to reverse any overall Democratic victory in November’s congressional races. … Currently, Trump’s polls are so low that he is endangering enough Republican seats in the House and Senate to give the feeble, corporate money-indentured Democratic Party a chance to win control of Congress. This is precisely what Trump fears, even though he has control of the Executive Branch and the immunity given him by six Injustices of the Supreme Court. Take note, he knows that impeachment and removal from office in the Senate are final, not reviewable in the federal courts. [Read More]
For his assessment of what tools Trump has to eliminate or overturn the November elections, Ralph Nader draws on a multi-part essay written by Mark Medish and Joel McCleary, and published recently in the Washington Spectator. The authors state:
The present essay, Part 4, has been composed with a seasoned incumbent in power—a president with full command of office, directing the Justice Department, the FBI, ICE (the largest new federal police force in American history), the IRS, the SEC and FCC, the intelligence community, the armed forces. He is using each agency in a coordinated attack on his political adversaries in ways that would have been dismissed as fantasy only a few years ago. … James Carville taught us to resist distraction from what was fundamental in 1992 politics. The economy surely remains the dominant factor for voter sentiment, but our rulers have something else on their minds. What is fundamental in the politics of 2026? It’s the power, stupid. In contrast with his random walk through the business of policymaking, including the Iran war, Trump has a layered, scenario-driven strategy, with ramified contingency plans, to stay in power at all costs, even if it means undermining the electoral process or the electorate’s confidence in it. Power is the sole principle. The political will, personal motivation, legal architecture and technical infrastructure are by now all in place. Means, motive and opportunity to override democratic norms are at hand. [Read More]
How should we respond to the possibility (or likelihood) that Trump will take whatever action he thinks necessary to prevent the loss of power in the mid-term elections. Needless to say, we haven’t been here before, and certainly at the grassroots level we have no experience in preventing the overthow a Democratic victory next November. Obviously a first preparatory step is to take the problem seriously. Another step is to stay informed about what Trump is doing, and what election-protectors are telling us. A third step would be to talk and discuss: with friends and family, in organizations (Indivisible, Dem. Parties and campaigns, and even “non-political places like churches, PTAs, etc.). We have more power to prevent disaster than we will have to recover from it. Let’s make election-protection and saving democracy a front burner issue for incumbents, candidates, letters-to-the-editor, and other things we do as conscientious citizens.
Frank Brodhead
For Concerned Families of Westchester
SOME USEFUL READING ABOUT THE MID-TERMS COUP
Trump’s Contested Order to Restrict Mail-In Voting Could Disenfranchise Millions:
An interview with Ari Berman, from Democracy Now! [August 26, 2026]
---- The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a lower court’s injunction on President Trump’s executive order seeking to limit mail-in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections. Trump’s order directs the Department of Homeland Security to create state-by-state lists of eligible voters who are citizens. The U.S. Postal Service would then use the lists provided by states to assess whether voters should be allowed to vote by mail. Justices ruled 6 to 3 that California and 22 other states lacked standing to sue over the issue. The ruling, however, did not address whether Trump had authority to impose the rules. A separate nationwide injunction against parts of the same order remains in place. [See the Program]
Yes, Trump Will Attempt a Coup. If we are vigilant, he won’t pull it off.
By Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect [July 28, 2026]
---- Free and fair elections this November should produce a Democratic wave, mass repudiation of Trump, and the possibility of a new impeachment. With each passing day, it becomes increasingly clear that Trump has only one strategy for averting that fate: stealing the 2026 midterm election. He can’t seem to deliver a speech without returning to his obsession that he actually won the 2020 election, most recently in a prime-time address filled with false evidence of supposed foreign interference. On January 6, 2021, Trump attempted to stage a coup and he will surely try again. … This time, Trump is relying on four possible strategies to steal the election. The survival of our democracy depends on whether each of them can be foiled, and how. [Read More]
[FB Trump’s “Four possible strategies” are, according to Kutner – 1. “The first is to use executive orders and directives to gain control of voter rolls, which will then be purged using commercial databases that are rife with errors.” 2. “Trump’s second strategy is to somehow get Congress to pass his SAVE America Act, which could require proof of citizenship and photo ID for people to register and vote, and otherwise turn control of elections over to the federal executive.” 3. “In the run-up to the November elections, the focus will shift to strategy number three: voter suppression, intimidation, and election disruption, both before and on Election Day.” 4. “The most alarming Trump tactic would be an echo of January 6, 2021: an effort to stage a coup by overturning the results.”
The Next Coup Attempt and How to Stop It
By Timothy Snyder – [Author of several books on fascism and democracy] [April 4, 2026]
---- Some variant of terrorism is Trump’s best bet. And so one should be (preemptively, now) skeptical of Trump’s account of any future terrorist attack; we can be sure that, whatever its true origins and character, Trump will provide a self-serving account meant to serve a coup and a dictatorship. It is utterly predictable that he will attempt to pass responsibility for any act of terror to his domestic political opponents and discredit or undo elections. We have to think through this chain of events now to make sure that we are ready to block it -- and to turn any such attempt against him. … A coup attempt is not at all unthinkable; Trump has done it before, and he makes it very clear that he is thinking about it now. When we think about it now, about how it might take shape, we make it less likely; indeed, we deter it. Knowledge of history can change the future. If we remember what history shows us is possible, we can prevent a coup from succeeding -- and turn any such attempt against its instigator. [Read More]
