Trump's plan to win the election before a single vote is cast

Lit only by the cold glow of his phone, he sat inside the White House in the dead of night. Outside, Washington slept. But Donald Trump was awake, hunched forward, eyes locked on the screen in front of him, rage scrolling and posting. He was unraveling in real time, spiraling deeper with every swipe of his thumb, and by morning, he had posted close to fifty times on Truth Social. The messages were impulsive, disordered, and increasingly detached from reality, ranging from wild conspiracy theories and fabricated election lies to outright threats and authoritarian propaganda. It was unbelievable. It was unimaginable coming from someone who holds the highest office in the country and wields this much power over the United States and the world. But none of that matters to Trump. He isn’t thinking about the country or the world at all, only about himself, his enemies, and the lie he cannot let go.

He shared videos accusing former presidents of treason, graphics claiming Barack “Hussain” Obama falsified intelligence and conspired with foreign powers to overthrow the government, and posts insisting that the election he lost years ago was still illegitimate. He amplified claims that Tulsi Gabbard had released secret documents proving a massive intelligence plot against him. He accused operatives with ties to China of funneling millions of dollars into Minnesota immigrant rights groups. He posted manipulated and AI-generated videos attacking governors, foreign leaders, and political opponents. He threatened investigations, promoted lies about left-wing terrorism, recycled debunked stories about Georgia, and reshared conspiracies pushed by Elon Musk. One post after another came pouring out through the night. It was a national disgrace and a sustained, obsessive rage spiral from a man who could not stop himself.

This is the moment in history when things usually start to slide fast. When authoritarian leaders begin to lose control, they do not step back. They escalate, and they do not accept limits or pause to reassess their behavior. They try to crush reality with noise. After Germany began losing the war, Hitler withdrew from the public and became increasingly isolated, issuing frantic late‑night orders, obsessed with betrayal, convinced that enemies inside his own government were sabotaging him. His propaganda did not calm down as the situation worsened. It exploded. Every loss was answered with louder lies and harsher threats. In Italy, as Mussolini’s support collapsed in 1943, his speeches grew more unhinged and detached, insisting victory was near while the country was already turning against him. In Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu stood before cameras in 1989, angrily shouting talking points to a population that no longer believed him, days before the regime fell and he was executed. These were not strong leaders in control. They were men losing their grip, clinging to power through intimidation and repetition. That is what makes this so dangerous. When a leader reaches this stage, facts start to look like weapons to them. And truth becomes something that can strip away their authority, expose their weakness, and end their rule. So they treat facts like enemies, and they try to destroy anyone who carries them. And the damage accelerates, because a person who cannot accept failure will always choose destruction over accountability. That is where Trump is now, and history tells us this phase is not stable. It is volatile, unpredictable, and deadly if it goes unchecked.

And if this were only about one man unraveling, it would be terrifying enough. But it’s not just him. It’s the machine around him. While Trump was up all night raging online, his allies were moving in the real world, strategically closing the walls around our democracy. They know what history teaches. That when an authoritarian begins to slip, the next move is to change the rules, rig the systems, and make sure that even if the people turn against them, it won’t matter. That’s where we are now.

In Georgia, that playbook is already underway. Yesterday, federal agents conducted a raid on the Fulton County elections office under direct orders from the Trump administration. They weren’t there to ensure free and fair elections. They were there to seize ballots from 2020, over five years after the election ended. Ballots that had already been audited, certified, and recounted. Trump made it clear why: he’s still obsessed with overturning his loss. And now, with the full force of the federal government behind him, he’s trying to rewrite the outcome by brute force. Cameras even caught National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard seemingly lurking behind a wall while the raid was happening. Her role is supposed to focus on foreign threats, so her presence on site during the raid is deeply troubling and is not something we can ignore. Intelligence officials aren’t allowed to engage in domestic law enforcement. But under Trump, laws don’t seem to matter.

Senator Jon Ossoff called it what it was: a display of federal law enforcement being turned into a personal instrument of revenge. Legal experts warned this could be the start of a wider pattern. That if they can take election materials in Georgia, they can do it anywhere, at any time. Trump has already laid the groundwork for this, installing loyalists across agencies and pushing bills that force state elections under federal MAGA control. That’s how you take away our right to vote without stopping us from casting votes.

And then today, House Republicans introduced the “Make Elections Great Again Act.” The name alone tells you what this is. It’s Trump branding, wrapped around a federal takeover of state voting rights. It requires photo ID, citizenship documents, and forces every state to update its voter rolls every 30 days, increasing the risk of eligible voters being removed in error. It bans universal mail-in voting. It gives the U.S. Attorney General, currently a Trump loyalist, and even private citizens, the power to sue election officials. That means your local poll worker can be taken to court by strangers, which will make these public servants afraid to serve at all, driven out by intimidation, exhaustion, and the looming threat of political retribution.

Laws like this aren’t about fraud. They’re about control. This would strip same-day registration, dismantle automatic mail ballot systems, and punish states that encourage voting by making it accessible for all. Women could be turned away for mismatched paperwork based on maiden or married/divorced names. Naturalized citizens could be forced to reprove their status every month. And the people who know your name, who run your local precinct with care? They’d be replaced by overseers reporting directly to Washington, whose only job is to limit voting, or worse, obstruct elections or commit fraud.

This is how authoritarian regimes seize elections. Through paperwork and panic. This is what Viktor Orbán did in Hungary: he changed the rules until opposition became impossible. This is what happened in Russia: fake elections that only serve to rubber-stamp dictatorship. And this is exactly what happened in Weimar Germany, when laws were slowly bent to make Hitler’s power permanent before most people even realized what was happening. In 1932, the Nazis lost support in parliamentary elections, but Hitler still maneuvered into power through backdoor deals and legal manipulations. Once chancellor, he used a fabricated emergency to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, stripping civil liberties and centralizing control of elections. It didn’t feel like a coup. It felt like paperwork. Until it was too late.

And this is the fear so many of us have. Trump has been floating the idea of canceling elections and threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act.

Trump is trying to make sure he never loses control. He jokes about serving another term, even though the Constitution makes clear that isn’t allowed. So he’s focusing on the one path that would let him keep power anyway: making sure his party keeps control of both chambers of Congress, giving him nearly unlimited power to do whatever he wants. If he loses even one chamber in the midterms, the checks come back. Investigations reopen. He’s no longer untouchable. That’s why he’s doing everything he can to keep these elections from being fair. Because if he succeeds, it won’t matter how many of us vote. The outcome will be rigged before the first ballot is even cast, locking him in the White House for as long as he wants to stay.

And while he’s laying the groundwork to stay in office with full, unrestricted control of the government, he hasn’t stopped working to concentrate wealth at the top—straight into his own pockets and those of his crony enablers. Today, he filed another lawsuit against two of his own government agencies: the IRS and the Treasury Department, demanding $10 billion. He’s suing over the release of his tax returns, which humiliated him when it showed he paid just $750 in federal taxes in both 2016 and 2017. That leak happened years ago. But that’s not what this is really about.

Trump continues to use the Justice Department, the courts, and taxpayer dollars to chase revenge and drain the same funds we all pay into for the public good. He wants us to foot the bill for his personal war on truth. And we already know how this story ends: the loyalists he’s installed inside government will likely settle, and public money will flow straight into Trump’s pocket. This isn’t just a grift. It’s authoritarian wealth extraction. And it leaves us all vulnerable, because the public funds we rely on for schools, healthcare, and safety nets will be gutted to make him richer. Desperate people are easier to control. He knows that. That’s the point. He wants us hungry, exhausted, and too afraid to fight back. We’ll be forced to live inside his authoritarian dream just to survive.

This is what regimes do. Putin used Russian courts to transfer state wealth to his allies. Orbán funneled Hungary’s public assets into foundations controlled by his party. Marcos in the Philippines turned lawsuits into cash machines for his friends and family. Trump is doing the same thing, only here, it’s dressed up in the language of legal process and “personal injury” to hide the looting.

I’ve thought a lot about how it feels like nothing we’re doing is making a difference. But then I remember that progress is slow. One day, we will look back and see the greater strides we made, ones that weren’t visible in the moment. This is a collective movement we’re building. We’re not just working to remove a corrupt leader. We’re building something lasting. Something that finally lives up to the promises of this country, not just for a chosen few, but for everyone.

The pendulum always swings. That’s nearly guaranteed. Our job is to make this the biggest swing this country has ever seen. And that means keeping the pressure on. On ourselves, on each other, and on those in power. We are the ones who keep this country going. And we are done living under this fascist regime. We have to turn our helplessness, our anger, our exhaustion into fuel. Nine months will be here before we know it, and we cannot afford to slow down.

I’ve mapped out my own path in this resistance. I’m reaffirming my commitment to you. I’ll be here every single night, making sure we know the truth of what’s happening. We are not letting Trump’s paid agitators overtake the media with their fake narratives and propaganda anymore. I’m going to attend as many protests and rallies as I can while still collecting the most important stories of the day to share. I know we have to be careful with our energy. If you need rest, take it. But please, jump back in as soon as you can. We can’t stop, not even for a moment, until we pry Trump’s clenched fist off Congress and take back our future.

This is not about doing everything. It’s about doing something. Because even the smallest refusal to comply with their agenda can ripple outward. And that’s where our power lives.

Pick where you can make the biggest impact and go all in. We’re going to need more public monitors for ICE raids. We need protests to remind people that none of this is normal, and that speaking out is still the right thing to do. Keep contacting your representatives. Demand action from Democrats and a stop to this regime from Republicans. If you can, donate to candidates running in the midterms. Ask how else you can support them. Start planning for late-summer canvassing, postcards, and phone banking. When I say this is all hands on deck, I mean it. This is a life-or-death moment for our country.

Support independent media. Paid subscriptions are what allow many of us to keep doing this work without being held hostage by corporate oversight, and still keep it free for those on fixed incomes. For me, your support means I can continue showing up every day with everything I have, and still leave the door open for anyone who needs access to this truth without a paywall blocking it.

Democracies don’t fall overnight. They fall when people keep saying, “It can’t get worse than this.” They fall when people convince themselves that history doesn’t apply here. But history doesn’t repeat because people don’t know it. It repeats because they look away when it matters most.

And although it’s not widely advertised, there is a nationwide economic blackout planned for tomorrow (Friday). So many of us are looking for a way to take action together, and this is a place to start. I’ll be participating too, by cutting back on any unnecessary purchases and spending only with small businesses and individuals when I can. Some people are choosing not to spend anything. Every version of this matters. Even a small dip in consumer activity sends a message. We, the people, are paying attention. And we are done being silent. More and more of us are stepping into our power, finding ways to resist, to disrupt, and to make ourselves impossible to ignore. These moments may feel small, but together they build something much bigger. They are how pressure grows and how change begins. That’s why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

PS. You can help me reach a much larger audience with the truth about the destruction unfolding in our country just by subscribing to my Substack. There’s a free option, and a $5/month subscription that directly supports this work and helps get it in front of more people.