Trump’s Initial Plan for Vote by Mail Was Far More Sinister

A new report sheds light on how Trump planned to restrict vote-in mailing—and put Howard Lutnick in charge of the whole thing.

President Trump had an even more extreme plan to restrict mail-in voting before the Supreme Court intervened, according to reporting from ProPublica.

Several sources familiar with the plan told ProPublica that Trump planned to require all ballots to be delivered through certified mail. That means anyone who wanted to vote by mail would be required to personally sign to receive their ballots—potentially penalizing the voting rights of millions of Americans simply for not being home.

This was a core tenet of one of the earlier versions of the president’s restrictive executive order, which was blocked by the Supreme Court in August. The final version omitted the certified mail requirement, instead simply requiring the U.S. Postal Service to vet mail-in voters through a massive national database.

The certified mail rule was given up on after internal opposition from postal service officials. The rule would have deputized postal workers, ultimately giving them the final decision as to who should and shouldn’t get a ballot based on whether or not they answered the door to sign for their ballot. For some reason, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would have had control over the effort.

This comes in the wake of reports that Postmaster General David Steiner wants to resign, as he seems unwilling to be at the center of Trump’s baseless election fraud crusade ahead of November midterms.

Mike Johnson Has Bonkers Excuse for Surging Data Center Hate

Republicans seem to be going all in on data centers, despite widespread public opposition.

House Speaker Mike Johnson cares so little about Americans that he’s pretending that public opinion is really the result of brainwashing by the Chinese government.

Speaking on Fox Business Monday, Johnson agreed with host Cheryl Casone’s assertion that the public pushback to artificial intelligence data centers was “coming from China” and being seized on by Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

“This is what Democrats do. Every election cycle they find something to glom onto and say that this is doom and gloom and everyone will die if we don’t win,” Johnson said. “Don’t buy it. This is a Chinese psyop. I really believe that. That’s not a conspiracy theory.”

Mike Johnson says opposition to data centers "is a Chinese psyop. I really believe that. That's not a conspiracy theory." pic.twitter.com/mQahEOX2gx— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 28, 2026

Mike Johnson says opposition to data centers "is a Chinese psyop. I really believe that. That's not a conspiracy theory." pic.twitter.com/mQahEOX2gx

Both Chinese and Russian actors have reportedly tried to inflame public discourse around AI data centers. Jessica Brandt, a former official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who tracked foreign influence efforts during the Biden administration, previously told The New York Times........

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