Legal Expert Breaks Down Trump’s Plan to UPEND the Midterm Elections
September 29, 2026
AI Summary
5 min read“I’m not saying this is gonna happen. I’m not saying that it is even more probable than not, but I think Trump wants the optionality to, if there is the circumstances where you can, to use federal law enforcement, ICE, or the FBI to get engaged in ways that are clearly in violation of federal law.”
That is election lawyer Marc Elias, creator of Democracy Docket, speaking on Pod Save America. He is describing a strategy he believes the Trump administration is pursuing ahead of the midterms: using the power of the federal government to make it harder for people to vote and easier to challenge results. Elias argues that the administration, aided by a conservative Supreme Court, is deploying a series of last-minute legal maneuvers—from a faulty citizenship database to threats of federal troops at polling places—designed to disenfranchise lawful voters. The central question is whether the legal system can stop them in time.
The Troops and the Palliative Care Approach
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Trump’s Plan: Undermine Midterm Elections** - Host introduces the thesis: the Trump administration is using legal tools to disenfranchise voters and potentially cheat. Guest Mark Elias, legal expert and creator of Democracy Docket, is brought on to explain.
- 2 (00:49) **Mike Collins Floats Troops at Polls** - Clip of Georgia Republican candidate Mike Collins suggesting federal troops at polling places, followed by Elias’s legal and political takedown.
- 3 (02:37) **DOJ’s Ham-Fisted Polling Site Visits** - Discussion of DOJ officials showing up unannounced at Wyoming polling sites, sparking backlash from the Republican governor.
- 4 (03:55) **The SAVE Database: A Faulty Tool for Voter Suppression** - Deep dive into the Supreme Court’s temporary green light for the SAVE database, a benefits system from the 1980s now used to verify citizenship for voting.
- 5 (06:51) **How the SAVE Database Disenfranchises Voters** - Explanation of the practical impact: voters flagged as ineligible may not cast provisional ballots or navigate post-election challenges.
- 6 (08:22) **The 90-Day Quiet Period and Legal Loopholes** - Debate over whether the SAVE database can be used for mass purges within 90 days of an election, and Republican efforts to bypass restrictions.
- 7 (10:14) **Supreme Court Dynamics: Not All Conservatives Are Alike** - Host asks Elias how to make persuasive cases to conservative justices like Barrett, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, given their mixed records.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Legal expert Marc Elias joins Jon Lovett in-studio to break down the biggest threats against our elections this November. They get into Mike Collins’ admitting his support to place local law enforcement at polling stations in Georgia, Fox New anchor Laura Ingraham’s coverage of a SCOTUS dissent in the latest ruling to support Trump’s voter ID database plus a cryptic message from Pete Hegseth calling on troops to vote and how Democrats win the debate over voter ID.
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