Trump pursues control of voting, teases a third term

Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump says he wants to end mail-in voting and voting machines. The Constitution outlines that state governments manage their elections, but in a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the states simply serve as agents for the federal government. "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," he wrote. Any change to the way Americans vote would need congressional approval. The president has already pushed to solidify a Republican majority in Congress by supporting the redrawing of congressional maps in Texas. That new map could add another five seats for the GOP in the House.

Could the president use that majority to end voting by mail? What are the implications of this for American democracy and states’ rights over elections?

National Guard troops are still patrolling the streets of Washington D.C.

When Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller visited National Guard troops at D.C.’s Union Station, they faced protestors shouting, “Free D.C.” Miller heckled the activists and said they would compel the administration to ramp up their efforts. Is Trump's use of National Guard troops simply a temporary demonstration of power, or should Americans be concerned that militarized cities will become the norm?

In a room full of merchandise near the Oval Office, shelves are lined with “Trump 2028” hats. President Trump gifted some of them to world leaders. The possibility of running for a third term is something Trump has teased since the early days of his second term. Is he just trolling, or should Americans take it seriously?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to left, right and center, everybody. I'm David Green. So, Merriam Webster defines the word autocracy as government in which one person possesses unlimited power. I want to get this out of the way. Straight at the top, I am not going to tell you today that we live in an autocracy. And I do want to be careful. Moa Lathie always says on this show, you know, don't throw around provocative, potentially triggering words. Focus on actual events and actions. And when you ask questions, start there. Okay. So let's start there. This past week, the president of the United States wrote on social media, I'm going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, and also while we're at it,
0:41.6	highly inaccurate, very expensive, and seriously controversial voting machines, end quote.
0:46.9	President Trump talked about dumping machines in favor of paper ballots when he appeared a little
0:51.3	later in the Oval Office.
0:52.2	So between paper ballots, very, very important,
0:56.1	paper ballots, and I think maybe even more important, the mail-in voting, we're going to end
1:01.6	mail-in voting. It's a fraud. The president added that mail-in ballots to him are, quote, corrupt,
1:07.9	and he said, quote, it's time that the Republicans get tough and stop it
1:12.3	because the Democrats want it. It's the only way they can get elected. We should say in the last
1:17.9	few election cycles, Democrats have used mail-in voting far more than Republicans. So can Trump ban
1:24.1	mail-in voting? Probably not. States run our elections. Then again, the president said
1:29.5	states are only an agent of the federal government when it comes to vote counting. Okay. Well, to actually
1:36.5	give the federal government power over elections, Trump would probably need Congress to change the law.
1:41.2	Could that happen? Okay, well, let's talk about Congress for a second. This week,
1:45.0	at Trump's request, the Republican-controlled Texas legislature is pushing through its redistricting
1:50.7	plans that could add five GOP House seats, with Governor Greg Abbott promising to sign this. This would
1:56.6	get the GOP closer to locking in a majority in the House in 2026, of course, in the run-up to the
2:02.4	28 election. So are these examples of a leader amassing more power? And what are the
2:09.3	implications of that? Well, I want to ask two people who are here with us today, Rebecca
2:14.0	Piercy is in for Moa Lathie on the left. She's a veteran Democratic strategist,
2:18.1	former political director for Elizabeth Warren's 2020 presidential run and now a partner at
2:22.6	Bryson Gillette in L.A. and Washington, D.C., based political communications shop. And on the
	...

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