Trump is too much of a narcissist to call off elections

He would rather rig them to ensure he gets the adulation he craves.

Midterm elections in the United States have often been dull affairs. They lack the galvanizing focus on presidential contests where attention is generally fixed on a two-person contest.

Turnout is generally lower in midterm elections, and they seldom seem crucial in shaping the fate of the nation.

No more, not in the Trump era.

The results of the 2026 election could well determine whether the president and his MAGA allies will have an open field to reshape our form of government to their liking. That is why it is important to think about them now and to do what is necessary to ensure that they will be free and fair.

At the present moment, the prospects are not great. Every day brings new evidence of that.

The latest sign of such manipulation came on Oct. 22 when the North Carolina Legislature enacted a law to redraw congressional districts to flip a congressional seat to Republicans. The same day, the New York Times ran a story about the president’s success in placing election deniers in key government positions, many of which give them some oversight of the next election.

Before saying more about the North Carolina situation and what the Times revealed, it is important to remember that many officials are saying we might not have elections next year.

For example, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said he thinks that Trump may be plotting to cancel the 2026 elections. “I’ve said this publicly. This is where all the evidence is going and at every turn Donald Trump gives us another reason to believe that that might be true. This is dangerous. This is unconstitutional.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has said he shares Fontes’s concern. He sees Trump’s plan to send troops into cities like Chicago as an indication that the president would like “to stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections.

“He’ll just claim that there’s some problem with an election, and then he’s got troops on the ground that can take control….”

Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom put it simply: “I don’t think Donald Trump wants another election.”

But for the moment at least, the president and his allies are putting so much effort into stacking the deck that it does not look like they intend to prevent the midterm elections from happening.

Let’s face it: Trump seems to like elections—as long as he wins them. They feed his insatiable appetite for praise and validation, even when his allies win, even if he is not on the ballot.

Trump draws immense satisfaction from large rallies and widespread public support, but an election victory serves as the ultimate validation for him.

As professor Ronald W. Pruessen observed, “Hunger for political power routinely ratchets up through escalating stages, a sequence that might be described as a ‘compound appetite’ process, when each new success encourages more intense cravings for power and/or a bigger sense of entitlement.” That description fits the president to a T.

So, elections will probably take place next year, but not truly democratic ones. Trump seems to be following the authoritarian playbook in which legislative elections are only allowed if they help the governing regime legitimize its power.

Or, as Project Democracy explained, “The biggest innovation of 21st-century authoritarians has been to maintain the facade of democratic elections while at the same time tilting the rules against their opponents. They do this by suppressing votes and biasing, distorting, falsifying, or even overturning the results—either through capturing the referees (e.g., installing loyalists as election officials, putting pressure on otherwise independent officials, etc.) or by manipulating the electoral rules in their favor.”

Such manipulation explains why North Carolina is redrawing its congressional districts. As the New York Times noted, state Senate leader Phil Berger and Destin Hall, the speaker of the state House, acknowledged in a joint statement that “they were taking action to protect President Trump’s agenda and safeguard Republican control of Congress.”

Lest there be any mistake about what is going on in the Tar Heel State, Berger posted the following after the vote in the state senate on Oct. 21: “North Carolina Republicans will not sit quietly and watch Democrats continue to ignore the will of the people in an attempt to force their liberal agenda on our citizens. This new map respects the will of the North Carolina voters who sent President Trump to the White House three times.”

His post also contained a photo of Berger and Trump, with wide grins on their faces.

North Carolina is just the latest state to try to stack the deck for the forthcoming election. As bad as that is, it is not as bad as Plan B: a full-scale coup.

Trump has also put in considerable effort into capturing the referees. One is Heather Honey, whom he appointed deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the Department of Homeland Security.

In a recent meeting with state election officials, as the New York Times reported, Honey, “rather than offering assurances that the federal government’s election protection programs would continue uninterrupted, … instead used portions of the meeting to echo rhetoric that has infused the right-wing election activist movement that emerged since President Trump falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud.”

As the Times put it, “the president is using the powers of the government to upend an electoral system that he insists helped Joseph R. Biden Jr. take the White House.” People like Honey “could wield their newfound power to discredit future results or rekindle old claims to argue for a federal intrusion into locally administered voting systems.”

Knowing all this should fuel our efforts now. There is no time to waste.

Blue states need to do their part to match red states gerrymander for gerrymander. Courts should gear up so they can intervene when Honey and her ilk tamper with the 2026 election.

The rest of us must not sit out the election next year. We have to turn out as if our very way of life depends on it.

That way we can save democracy and deprive Trump of the victory he craves. And we all need to redouble our skepticism about the onslaught of false claims the president will make if the election doesn’t come out his way.

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College.

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