FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the media after signing an executive order establishing the President's Military Spouse Commission to be chaired by Jennifer Rauchet, wife of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 3, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
A political expert issued a dark warning on Monday as the country prepares for the November midterms.
President Donald Trump has made it clear that he intends to meddle in the 2026 midterms. He has called on the Postal Service to create a national voter database and send mail-in ballots only to people on that list, a move that the courts have upheld thus far. He has also repeatedly called on Republicans to pass the SAVE American Act, a bill that would rewrite the way U.S. elections are conducted.
David Rothkopf, a political analyst and columnist for The Daily Beast, argued during a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" that Trump has weakened America's election security infrastructure and plans to use that to his advantage in the midterms.
“Buckle up, everybody,” Rothkopf warned. “The next 90 days are going to be a weird and wild ride.”
One looming issue for the midterms is that the Supreme Court has yet to rule on an appeal the Trump administration filed regarding new rules it set for mail-in ballots. Experts have speculated that the Court could rule on it using the so-called shadow docket, an emergency procedure that allows the court to issue a ruling without explaining its rationale.
Rothkopf noted that the efforts are all part of Trump's continued efforts to stay in power, which appear to be failing.
“Donald Trump is drowning in failure,” Rothkopf said. “Nothing he says or does is working anymore. And so he’s got to try these wild schemes to distract from it, to get attention, to hope it disrupts something.”