Now that former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has returned to the job he had before joining the bureau — hosting a conservative podcast — the media personality made a splash Monday by welcoming Donald Trump onto his program. Evidently, the president had quite a bit to say, especially about the election conspiracy theories that he and the host hold dear.
Partway through the interview, Bongino briefly referred to crime rates, to which Trump responded with a meandering rant across a variety of unrelated subjects, including his bizarre beliefs about election administration.
In the course of an unsettling tirade about his “landslide” victory in 2024 (which clearly wasn’t a landslide) and his belief that undocumented immigrants were brought into the U.S. specifically to vote against Republicans (undocumented immigrants cannot and do not vote), Trump elaborated on his vision for the nation’s electoral system.
“You know, it’s amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on it,” the president told Bongino. “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over.’ We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Trump then proceeded to refer to states he believes he secretly won, despite the election results.
The president has long struggled with the basics of constitutional law, his oath of office notwithstanding, but Republicans can’t legally “nationalize the voting.” The U.S. Constitution, which Trump swore to uphold, delegates power to the states to conduct elections.
His bonkers conspiracy theories have been thoroughly discredited, but even if they were rooted in fact, GOP officials couldn’t simply launch an electoral power-grab at will.
It might be tempting to discard Trump’s latest nonsense as inconsequential. Sure, he might want to “nationalize the voting,” but since that’s not a legal option, his unconstitutional wishes are irrelevant.
But it’s not quite that simple.
Trump has long made clear that he rejects the idea that Americans settle their differences at the ballot box, and in recent weeks he’s offered fresh evidence of his antipathy toward democracy. On the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks, for example, Trump briefly floated the idea of canceling future U.S. elections. A few weeks ago, he told Reuters that he’s so impressed with himself and his record that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”
While Trump doesn’t have a credible plan to take over the nation’s system of elections, his increasingly frequent and radical declarations have been unsubtle. They’ve also begun to result in concrete action: It was just last week when FBI agents raided an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing ballots and voting records as part of the president’s conspiracy theory, which included Trump personally thanking the agents for their efforts.
This coincided with Trump’s Justice Department pursuing an aggressive campaign to acquire voter rolls from states where Democrats won in 2024.
Those concerned about democracy, voting rights and the integrity of election results don’t have the luxury of simply shrugging with indifference at the president’s latest nonsense. It’s part of a broader pattern of behavior that extends well beyond ridiculous whining.
