Donald Trump Urges Republicans To Take Control Of The Vote In Several States Ahead Of 2026 Midterms

In the run-up to the November 2026 midterm elections, Donald Trump has urged Republicans to take control of the electoral process in several states and has floated the idea that “there shouldn’t even be elections.”

“Midterms 2026: how Donald Trump is preparing to challenge the results Nine months ahead of the United States' midterm elections, Donald Trump is urging Republicans to 'take control' of the electoral process in several states”

France 24

The Regards article says Trump “keeps looking for ways to twist democracy, or even to block it,” and it quotes Trump directly: “When you think about it, there shouldn’t even be elections.”

France 24

It also records the White House response that “The president was only joking,” adding that Trump said, “We are doing an excellent job, we are doing everything the American people expect of us, we should perhaps simply keep going on our trajectory.”

France 24 reports that Trump told conservative podcaster and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, “Republicans should say they want to take control of the vote, at least in about fifteen places,” and then added, “Republicans should nationalize the vote.”

France 24 further says that from the Oval Office the next day Trump told reporters, “The state is an agent of the federal government during elections. I don't understand why the federal government doesn't take care of it itself,” urging Republican lawmakers to harden the voting rules.

NBC News, meanwhile, frames the midterm primaries as a battle for control of Congress, saying Republicans hope to “maintain and expand their narrow majorities” while Democrats aim to win over voters frustrated with Trump on the economy and other issues.

France 24 casts Trump’s push to “nationalize” the vote as both legally unfounded and politically significant, describing it as an “unconstitutional proposition” and saying it revives fears of a new offensive against the integrity of the ballot.

The outlet quotes Trump’s strategy in his own words, but it also places that language against constitutional structure, stating that “Article I assigns the organization of elections to the states, not to the federal government.”

NBC News

France 24 then quotes Ludivine Gilli, director of the North America Observatory at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, saying, “Wanting to take control of the elections is completely unconstitutional,” and adding, “The Constitution gives the president no power over election administration.”

It also quotes Steven Ekovich, professor emeritus at the American University of Paris, saying, “Legally, nationalizing the elections is almost impossible given how decentralized the system is,” and it adds Ekovich’s explanation that Trump “only needs to sow doubt about the results.”

In the Regards article, the argument is framed as a pattern rather than a one-off, saying Trump promised “I will not be a dictator, except on the first day,” and then later suggested Americans “no longer have to worry about voting.”

Regards also says Trump contemplated “overruling the Constitution to seek a third term,” and it asserts that “even the most serious constitutional scholars have weighed in on the question.”

France 24 describes Trump’s approach as “sowing doubt” rather than direct control of ballots, quoting Steven Ekovich to argue that “Trump doesn't need to control the ballots to undermine the process: he only needs to sow doubt about the results.”

“The American president keeps looking for ways to twist democracy, or even to block it”

Regards

The outlet says the president’s goal is not to overturn elections “as a whole,” which it calls “institutionally untenable,” but to “target specific results,” including by challenging mail-in voting when it “could tilt the outcome.”

France 24 links this to a prior timeline, saying Trump “repeated the operation against Joe Biden by targeting mail-in voting,” and it states that by challenging the validity of postal ballots he “prepared public opinion for the brutal contestation of the results, opening the way to the Capitol assault by his supporters on January 6, 2021.”

It also says Trump’s rhetorical pattern began earlier, noting that “As early as February 2016,” after his defeat to Ted Cruz in Iowa, he accused his rival of “fraud” and on Twitter called for “a new election or the overturning of Cruz's results.”

The Regards article similarly points to a sequence of actions and claims, saying Trump “did not acknowledge his 2020 defeat, denouncing the ‘fraud’ associated with these voting methods,” and it adds that “An election that had, after all, ended with an attempted coup.”

Regards also says “Since then, the president has used his power of clemency to free the Capitol attackers,” and it asserts that Trump has pursued “redrawing district lines, a census to push out immigrants, purges in the administration.”

NBC News frames the 2026 midterm primaries as a fight for control of Congress, with Republicans seeking to “maintain and expand their narrow majorities” and Democrats aiming to win over voters frustrated with Trump “on the economy and other issues.”

It says Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win control of the Senate in 2026, adding that “That means the party has to defend every seat it currently holds, and flip four more on highly competitive and even outright Republican terrain.”

NBC News

France 24 describes the stakes in electoral terms as well, stating that “In November, the entire House of Representatives and 35 Senate seats will be up for reelection.”

It also says historically midterms are “unfriendly to the president's party,” and it ties the political environment to “protests over deadly immigration-agent interventions in Minneapolis and inflation weighing on household budgets.”

France 24 adds that Trump has warned his camp that losing the majority would give Democrats “a lever to revive an impeachment proceeding.”

The Regards article, meanwhile, portrays the midterms as a democratic safeguard, saying “In November 2026, Americans are expected to go back to the polls for the midterms,” and it describes the midterm elections as renewing “the House of Representatives (and a third of the Senate).”

While the political debate over election administration intensifies, NBC News lays out how it collects and projects results in the 2026 primaries, emphasizing a process built on county- and precinct-level reporting and verification across sources.

“Midterm Primaries 2026 The battle for control of Congress is on”

NBC News

NBC News says its Decision Desk provides “real-time, accurate election results as soon as they are made available by election officials,” and it describes projection as a determination that “the trailing candidates cannot catch the leader and that the leading candidate will win the race.”

France 24

It adds that “The Decision Desk only projects a race when it is certain of the outcome.”

For vote counting, NBC News says “The Associated Press provides election results data to NBC News and other major news organizations,” and it describes data collection through “multiple sources on Election Day,” with “data reporters and interviewers across the country calling in county- and precinct-level results on a timely and rolling basis all day long.”

It also says vote data is collected through “state and county websites and feeds,” and it describes quality control as checking that vote data is “consistent across sources” and comparing results to “past election results.”

The article also states that “All projections are made independently of other outlets,” positioning its methodology as a safeguard against uncertainty.