Outrage Du Jour; Or, Sometimes Trump’s Critics Are As Absurd As Trump

"Don't worry, citizens, we have to seal off this polling station and take custody of these ballots to prevent any foul play by the cheating opposition!" 2026 is under dire threat, and it's not just suppression. https://t.co/nhQlCPtkjH

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 24, 2025

Tell me again how this works. 

Texas allows nearly two weeks before election day for early voting. I can go to any location in the county and cast my vote, 10 hours a day, for almost two weeks, weekends included. Given the diversity of the area I live in, for all I know I’m in a “minority” district.  But, as I say, in early voting, I can vote near work, near (or at) my kid’s school, or on the way to the movies. My choice. How does the NG “police” that?

Abbott may welcome them, but Texas has 254 counties, with probably as many voting precincts in the major urban counties (where the Democrats are). They can’t be significantly policed, especially since turnout is higher in early voting than on voting day. And if they’re going to seize ballots from any precinct, they’ll have to do it at the county courthouse. Where they’ll need a court order.

Trump tried to do this in 2020. He didn’t have any better lawyers then than he has left in the DOJ now. He lost 60+ cases, and never got in the courthouse door because he didn’t have any evidence. How successful would he be in 2026?

The courts won’t throw out ballots, or allow seizure of ballots, without extremely strong evidence.  Even the Sinister Six declined to help Trump in 2020. The only change to the court since then is Justice Brown Jackson. And if the nightmare scenario comes about and the election is suspended, what then?

In 2020, Trump wanted the presidential votes alone tossed out. It doesn’t work that way. Had he gotten his wish, all the ballots would have been tossed. A few private actors tried to seize a a few ballots in 2020. They were prosecuted. Trump may think he’s the president and the Speaker and the chief law enforcement officer, but the states run elections, and the courts, by and large, leave them to it.  Trump has no authority to Bigfoot the elections just because federal races are on state ballots, and the courts aren’t going going to cede him that power.

If he could seize ballots, what then? The entire House and 1/3rd of the Senate couldn’t be certified or seated. (As long as we’re imagining absurd outcomes.) And then there are the state races on the same ballots. All those tossed out. Now what? Chaos all the way down.

This is the easy way to understand reason why courts don’t throw out elections. Suddenly they could be responsible for shutting down representative government. It’s no more absurd than imagining soldiers seizing ballot boxes and declaring Trump’s hand-picked candidates the victors in all the states, or even in one state. And what is Trump’s argument? That the ballots are invalid because Democrats were elected? And does he make this argument before the election? Based on what? The election is an insurrection preventing the enforcement of federal law? I think even the Sinister Six would decide that’s one time when the President’s determination IS subject to judicial review.

So, what? Declare martial law and suspend the election? Why didn’t he do that in 2020? The guy who waffles on his claim his ballroom will cost $350 million, and shuts down Lafayette Park so nobody can photograph the destruction, is going to go full tyrant this time next year and effectively suspend Congress?

Sure he is.