For a president who’s talked constantly about winning, Donald Trump has so far been rife with losses—in the stock market, on the diplomatic front, in the courts, and in public approval. His first 100 days were nothing short of a disaster, hampered not just by Trump’s own ineptitude but by the ineptitude of his sycophantic subordinates and his presidential proxy, Elon Musk. Trump has fumbled peace talks between Israel and Hamas; alienated Ukraine while kowtowing to Putin; fired tens of thousands of workers (many of whom, following legal challenges, he has been forced to rehire); had his national security team publicly exposed as incompetent buffoons; thus far failed in his plans to capture Greenland or the Panama Canal; and stumbled into a global trade war that’s likely to drag down the entire economy. It would not be remotely surprising if the economy is in the midst of recession when voters head to the polls in November for the midterm elections. Things are currently going so badly, in fact, that a recession is far from the worst-case scenario.

Meanwhile, special elections in Florida and Wisconsin have suggested that voters are already fed up with the Trump administration and point to the possibility that the 2026 midterms could be a blue wave. As Trump’s failures continue to mount, Republicans have good reason to fear a backlash.

Perhaps this explains why Trump is intent on bolstering the election denial movement, which has lately notched a number of key victories. On March 25, the president signed Executive Order #14248, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” which neither preserves nor protects our elections but rather undermines them. It is a clarion call to Republicans throughout the nation, who are being encouraged to question the legitimacy of any election loss and ultimately establish a permanent electoral advantage by challenging and removing eligible voters from the rolls. Now, with Trump’s executive order, they have insurance: a way of tipping elections in their favor by choosing the voters rather than having the voters choose them.

The order instructs the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, or EAC, to amend its national mail voter registration form to require that all voters present documentation proving they are citizens, in the form of an ID that conforms with the REAL ID Act of 2005, a military ID, government-issued photo ID (all of which must indicate citizenship status or be accompanied by proof of citizenship), or a passport. A study from the University of Maryland found that this measure alone could disenfranchise........

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