cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/21711
After weeks of authoritarian threats to crush protests with the military, cancel elections, conquer foreign countries, and send masked agents door-to-door to round up anyone who can't prove their citizenship, Trump on Wednesday told an already uneasy room full of world leaders that "sometimes you need a dictator."
The offhanded comment came in the middle of a rambling speech at the reception dinner for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, in which Trump congratulated himself on a different rambling speech he'd given earlier that day at the summit.
“We had a good speech, we got great reviews. I can’t believe it, we got good reviews on that speech,” Trump said of the widely mocked address in which he continued to demand the US take over Greenland (which he repeatedly referred to as "Iceland") and made new tariff threats against Canada and Europe if they resist the annexation.
“Usually they say ‘he’s a horrible dictator-type person,’ I’m a dictator,” Trump continued. “But sometimes you need a dictator! But they didn’t say that in this case... It’s all based on common sense, it’s not conservative or liberal, or anything else.”
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At least twice over the past month, Trump has suggested that the 2026 midterm elections should be canceled, since his party is likely to lose.
The first time he brought up the idea, on the five-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, he seemed to back off the idea for fear of being called a dictator by his detractors: "I won’t say cancel the election; they should cancel the election, because the fake news would say: ‘He wants the elections canceled. He’s a dictator.’ They always call me a dictator.”
But if being called a dictator was the only thing holding him back from attempting to suspend democracy, he no longer appears to care.
As political commentator Charlotte Clymer wrote on social media, "Trump is now openly referring to himself as a dictator" in front of the whole world.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
So, as I understand it, it’d be really difficult to actually cancel elections since they’re run down to the county level. “The election” is essentially 50 elections full of a varying number of sub-elections. And of course state and local elections which have nothing to do with the federal govt. I’m no election expert but that’s the election as I understand it. So the president doesn’t really say the election is happening or not happening, it’s really the county.
The two things he could do I guess are have the military go in to enforce his decision or refuse to recognize the elections. I have no idea how refusing to recognize the election would work since it’s not trump but the reps/senators that are being elected. Maybe it’d look like Mike Johnson refusing to swear anybody in, which he did for a while with that rep from Arizona. This probably wouldn’t work for state and local elections though.
The military thing is interesting. I think Trump’s personal gestapo at this point is ice, and I doubt there are enough people in ice to shut down the election in every county, or even just the ones that are competitive. Supposedly the military generals were balking at trumps threats to invade Greenland so they don’t seem to have become his personal military just yet but idk maybe American generals are just that cowed, I don’t have much faith in them. But there’s also the fact that more than even the constitution elections are at the very heart of the American identity. Anyway my point is that actually canceling elections would likely be much more difficult and complex than I think trump has the patience for. You’d also be depending on the complete loyalty of a multitude of individuals far from your inner circle in a way that goes against their American civic religion.
He just needs to suppress the vote in urban areas in swing states. I'd be shitting myself in Atlanta or Philly.
It's doable.
Idk most urban areas are already blue so it’d be sort of useless. He’d need to worry about those places where a red congressperson was in danger of being replaced by a blue person. Areas that are extremely moderate but lean Republican.
Okay I misunderstood you, I thought you were talking about the presidential election, not midterms.
That being said, there are very few competitive districts due to gerrymandering. I haven't done electoral analysis in a while (I have given up on US electoralism) but it looks like only 18 house seats are competitive. . Maybe a few lean D's as well to keep the house.
Senate would be a bit more of a challenge. The question I think is if they can get enough manpower and use enough violence to sway the 2026 midterms. I think they can, I think this will be a very violent election.
So far
Yeah true I know they are trying to increase numbers