Despite Using Iranian Meddling to Justify War, Trump Axes Election Defenses
President Donald Trump has cited many, sometimes-conflicting reasons for launching a war against Iran. Here, I want to focus on a particularly deceitful justification that demands close attention because it could become the basis for his efforts to undermine US elections in 2026.
Trump remains obsessed with the lie — core to his MAGA movement — that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Now, he is linking the attack on Iran to that country’s online interference in the 2020 election.
In light of Trump’s separate explicit threats to restrict voting in 2026 and beyond, his tying Iran to US elections suggests that he and his minions may be cooking up a national security-based argument for limiting or suspending midterm polling. Free and fair elections would lead to Democratic victories and Republicans possibly losing control of one or both houses of Congress. Such a setback would undercut MAGA momentum and could lead to an effort to impeach Trump and key members of his cabinet.
One aspect of Trump’s deceitful attempt to tie the war to Iranian election interference ought to be particularly noteworthy to the audience of Tech Policy Press: The president pretends to care about foreign actors influencing US elections, when, in fact, he and his allies have aggressively and systematically undermined academic research and government oversight aimed at identifying and deterring online foreign interference.
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