Politics Today: News, Analysis & Debate Across the Spectrum
- Trump openly urges Texas Republicans to claim five extra House seats, framing it as entitlement based on his popularity.
- He pushes nationwide mid-cycle gerrymandering and explicit redistricting plans to secure a massive House majority.
- Trump advocates eliminating mail-in voting and switching to paper ballots to suppress votes and advantage Republicans.
- His public explicitness removes euphemism, prompting Democrats to abandon restraint and fight back against overt election subversion.
- Allies and federal actions, including law enforcement displays, reinforce a coordinated effort to reshape power and voting rules.
Since directing Texas Republicans to help him steal the House in the midterms, President Trump has been pretty forthcoming about his belief that Republicans are “entitled” to five more seats in Texas, simply because he is popular there.
“They did it to us first,” Trump said earlier this month as Texas Democrats left the state to try to delay the inevitable. “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know. And we are entitled to five more seats.”
He’s also gotten far more ambitious — or, at least, explicit about his plans — when it comes to various election subversion strategies. He’s not hidden his and his administration officials’ attempts to pressure other red states like Florida, Ohio and Indiana to take a cue from Texas Republicans and engage in mid-cycle redistricting so that he doesn’t have to deal with the investigative (and other) consequences that’ll come with losing the House. And earlier this week, as my colleague Kate Riga reported, he announced the second prong of his effort to rig the midterms: he wants to pressure red state officials to do away with mail-in ballots. He re-upped the idea shortly after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he claimed told him the 2020 election was rigged due to vote-by-mail. Despite Putin’s reminder, this has been an area of fixation for him for some time, so much so that the Republican National Committee had to do a bunch of clean up in 2024 to try to get their voters to trust the process again.
In a Truth Social post last night he spelled out a master plan for 2026 ratfuckery — or, at least, a piece of one. We’ve long been expecting something like this. On Wednesday night, he went big, making it explicit that he wants to secure a “100-seat majority” in the House. And that’s something he thinks Republicans can pull off if they just do a clever combo of nationwide gerrymandering and the elimination of vote-by-mail as a practice. Here’s what he said:
Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Texas never lets us down. Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing. More seats equals less Crime, a great Economy, and a STRONG SECOND AMENDMENT. It means Happiness and Peace. But Republicans, there is one thing even better – STOP MAIL-IN VOTING, a total fraud that has no bounds. Also, go to PAPER BALLOTS before it is too late – At one tenth the cost, faster, and more reliable. If we do these TWO things, we will pick up 100 more seats, and the CROOKED game of politics is over. God Bless America!!!
The whole “100 more seats” thing is perhaps a hyperbolic troll — unlike anything anyone’s ever seen, etc. But it’s nonetheless significant. Republicans and red state officials tend to try to keep explicit mentions of their true intentions when screwing around with maps and election rules out of public commentary. Now that Trump is being so explicit, Democrats have no reason not to abandon the higher ground, point toward the folly of unilateral disarmament, and join the no-holds-barred fight to stop Republicans’ ratfuckery.
Trump’s Big Boy Ride Along
As if we needed more evidence that President Trump’s takeover of D.C. was never about crime and always about made-for-TV photo ops, it appears the president will be joining law enforcement for a ridealong this evening.
It’s unclear if he will ride alongside the D.C. police force he federalized, the National Guard troops he and other red state officials performatively sent into the district or the ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents he sent in (who are doing very little besides violently arresting food delivery drivers). But whatever he does adds to the appearance that Trump is hellbent on creating: doing whatever he can to conjure up the visuals of a crackdown on crime in a city that has only seen a significant drop in violent crime in recent years. (And, if it needs repeating, none of this was ever about crime in the first place, he just wants to make it seem like he can come in and take over American cities led by Democratic officials).
“I’m going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police and with the military, of course. So we’re going to do a job,” Trump said to conservative radio host Todd Starnes today. “The National Guard is great. They’ve done a fantastic job.”
Interior Dept Get in on the Action
Trump’s allies have been doing gymnastics ever since he federalized the D.C. police to 1.) help justify his baseless takeover and 2.) prove their fealty by adding troops to the cause. Case in point today:
.@Interior has authorized a service-wide deputization of @CBP officers to serve alongside @usparkpolicepio and intensify crime deterrence efforts on @NatlParkService sites.
Thank you to these brave officers who are working 24/7 to enforce @POTUS‘ directive to make D.C. safe…
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) August 20, 2025
California Clears First Hurdle
The California Assembly has passed the first of three bills that were being debated in both the California Assembly and Senate on Thursday, designed to help the state draw new congressional maps that could potentially give Democrats at least five new seats in the U.S. House. The bills being debated today, when passed and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, will create the ballot language for a proposed constitutional amendment that California voters will weigh in on in November.
If the measure is approved it’ll give California officials permission to forego the state’s typical process for redrawing congressional maps, meaning they can bypass the state’s independent redistricting commission. The panel typically oversees the non-partisan creation of congressional maps to ensure fair representation of the population in Washington. But, as Newsom has said in his pitch to voters, these aren’t typical times. Newsom is seeking temporary permission to bypass the commission in order to help offset the gain Republicans will likely make in the House with Texas Republicans on the verge of approving their maps for five new red seats in the state.
In Case You Missed It
How the New Attack on Lisa Cook Gives Away Trump’s Abuse of Power Game
Public Broadcasting Cuts Are Already Putting Trump’s Supporters in Rural America at Risk
Even As They’re Poised to Pass Gerrymandered Maps, Texas GOP Finds Ways to Threaten Dems
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Trump Pushes White Nationalist Agenda Across Multiple Fronts
What We Are Reading
Supreme Court clears way for nearly $800 million in cuts to NIH grants
