What did Donald Trump do today?

He woke up very angry about Americans voting in ways he doesn't approve of.

Early this morning, Trump posted this to his private microblogging site:

I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly “Inaccurate,” Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election. We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED. WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections. Remember, the States are merely an “agent” for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do. With their HORRIBLE Radical Left policies, like Open Borders, Men Playing in Women’s Sports, Transgender and “WOKE” for everyone, and so much more, Democrats are virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM. ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS. I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS. THE MAIL-IN BALLOT HOAX, USING VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, MUST END, NOW!!! REMEMBER, WITHOUT FAIR AND HONEST ELECTIONS, AND STRONG AND POWERFUL BORDERS, YOU DON’T HAVE EVEN A SEMBLANCE OF A COUNTRY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!!! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

About a third of all votes cast in recent elections have been by mail, and virtually all of the rest on some form of "VOTING MACHINE" or another. Eight states, including extremely conservative ones like Utah, conduct all elections by mail. (Dozens of other countries use it, too.)

American military personnel overseas also vote by mail—and so do American citizens abroad, for a total of about 3 million voting-age citizens who would be disenfranchised by Trump's plan. This is not the first time Trump has tried to toss out the votes for servicemembers: when he demanded in 2020 that courts "STOP THE COUNT" while his in-person vote lead still held in enough swing states, a lot of the uncounted votes were mail-in ballots from military bases.

To be clear, Trump has absolutely no authority to do any of what he's threatening to do here. The United States Constitution gives the states the power to conduct and regulate elections, subject only to laws passed by Congress. Of course, Trump's party controls both houses of Congress, and could in theory pass laws similar to what he's demanding here. 

But whether or not Trump is aware of it, the sovereignty of the states is about as bedrock a Republican idea as there is, and the idea that (for example) Utah is "merely an agent" is likely to be extremely unpopular in red states as well as blue. In fact, it's exactly the kind of thing that conservatives have long accused liberals of secretly plotting towards—federal control of everything.

In remarks later today, Trump repeated his claim that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had put the idea in his head during their summit meeting last week. (There are no real elections in Russia under Putin, who bans anyone who seriously opposes him from the ballot, and assassinates them if they still pose a threat.)

Much of Trump's rant is obviously just self-soothing over his loss in 2020 to Joe Biden, something he is rarely able to go a day without mentioning. That was the first election in which absentee voting showed any real partisan split, as Democrats took advantage of Trump's bizarre preemptive attack on the safest way to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump's case for re-election was that COVID had simply gone away—somewhat undermined by the fact that he nearly died from it in October of that year—and while Republican voters clearly responded to him urging them to vote in person rather than by mail, not all of them were willing or able to vote in person.

In other words, Trump's attacks on voting by mail absolutely cost him votes in an election that was close enough for him to have won if a few close states had gone differently.

Why does this matter?

• In a democracy, voters choose the government, not the other way around. 

• Making threats you can't back up without ignoring the law is what tinpot dictators do. 

• Republicans who voted for Trump may have thought he understood what it meant when he said he was a Republican. 

• Presidents should know or care what the Constitution says.