Not Fair, Not Square: How the Trump Administration is Trying to Steal the Midterms

Here are the top news stories that you should know about for the week of July 6, 2026:

#1) HOW TO DISMANTLE A DEMOCRACY: ELECTION INTERFERENCE

Two weeks ago, our No. 2 story was about how the Trump administration had lost several court cases related to its attempts to interfere with the midterm elections. Yay democracy!

Now, the administration appears to be shifting tactics — using federal funding, weakened oversight and threats of prosecution – to make sure they keep their Congressional majorities after the November midterm elections.

Before we get to this week's developments, a reminder that noncitizen voting is rare. Most people who are in the country illegally are not going to jeopardize their situation by going to – of all things – vote. I'm sure many of them care deeply about who their elected representatives are... but, still. You would – at minimum – need hundreds of people in the same jurisdiction and in the same election to take that risk to get close to swaying the outcome of a race.

Still, the Trump administration is claiming this is a problem so they can get access to voter rolls and purge them – especially in Democratic states. This allows them to preempt or mitigate any midterm losses – which is, by far, an easier and cleaner way to engineer the outcome they want.

In case that doesn't work or is not enough, the administration is also sowing doubt in election processes, weaponizing federal funding, pulling resources from state and local governments that work to ensure that elections run smoothly, and intimidating election officials and poll workers who help ensure free and fair elections.

Here's how:

A) WITHHOLDING FEDERAL FUNDING. Every year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awards more than $1 billion in federal taxpayer money — so, your tax dollars — to state and local governments — where you live — to help protect against “acts of terrorism and other threats.”

This week, DHS finalized a policy that would withhold 20% of those funds from grantees that fail to take certain actions related to elections and voting that the Trump administration wants.

Some of the requirements are common sense and already practiced by states. For example, states would be required to audit their election results by reconciling the number of voters who voted with the number of ballots cast.

Others are disingenuously framed. For example, DHS wants states to replace barcode-based voting machines, claiming they don’t provide paper trails. There are valid concerns about electronic voting machines, but 98% of all votes cast in the 2024 election — including those cast on electronic machines — had a paper trail.

All this common-sense fluff is padding what the Trump administration is really after — and what it is angry it hasn’t been able to achieve so far, though not for lack of trying: access to state's voter rolls.

Since Trump returned to office, his administration has been working feverishly to force states to turn over their voter lists so the federal government can run them through unreliable systems under the guise of verifying citizenship and voter eligibility. Doing so could disenfranchise eligible voters — and that’s the point.

Except – he's losing:

“While some states have complied with the administration’s demands that they hand over voter roll data, the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for resisting. So far, 11 different federal courts have dismissed the Justice Department’s efforts to seize voter rolls.” — NBC News

Now, the new DHS mandate says states must run their voter rolls through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, known as SAVE, to verify registered voters’ citizenship status within 120 days of accepting any grants.

But the system was not created for that purpose. It is not comprehensive, and running voter lists through it would most likely produce innumerable errors that could result in eligible voters being kicked off their states’ voter rolls. And this could happen so close to the midterms that people may not be aware before they show up to vote or won't have time to resolve the issue before election day.

In February, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported that test runs showed SAVE making “persistent mistakes, particularly in assessing the status of people born outside the U.S., data gathered from local election administrators, interviews and emails obtained via public records requests show. Some of those people subsequently become U.S. citizens, a step that the system doesn’t always pick up.”

B) DISMANTLING RESOURCES. At the same time the administration is attaching new conditions to election funding, it is dismantling the bipartisan federal commission created to help states run elections.

This week, the Trump administration effectively fired the remaining three commissioners — two Democrats and one Republican — on what’s known as the Election Assistance Commission, or EAC. The fourth commissioner, a Republican, resigned earlier this year.

The EAC is — or was — a four-member, bipartisan commission established to provide federal assistance to state and local governments as they run elections. The commission not only provides funding where needed, but also offers guidance on voting best practices and support for election officials working with scarce resources.

It was created, in part, after the tangled mess of Bush v. Gore and hanging chads, as well as the advent of electronic voting systems whose safety and reliability had not yet been tested.

So the Trump administration is making states jump through hoops using various carrot-and-stick approaches while simultaneously neutering the EAC four months before the midterm elections.

C) INTIMIDATION. The DOJ sent a letter to all 50 states and D.C., warning that election officials could be prosecuted if they knowingly allow noncitizens to vote in November’s midterm elections.

Allowing noncitizens to vote has always been illegal, which makes the whole letter kind of funny but also concerning.

“This is what panic and desperation looks like… They’ve had 18 months to find evidence of a crime that was never committed, and found nothing. And now they fall back on crude and transparent bullying tactics." — David Becker, former DOJ voting rights lawyer and head of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, in The New York Times

Even Utah’s Republican Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson called the DOJ letter “bizarre.”

Related:

• In June, Trump canceled a signing ceremony for an unrelated bipartisan housing bill “in PROTEST” over the Senate’s failure to pass the SAVE America Act, which does not have enough Republican support to pass. The SAVE America Act would make it harder for people to vote by requiring documentary proof of citizenship — a burdensome requirement for millions of eligible voters. Well, Trump's temper tantrum didn't work. This week, the housing bill became law without his signature anyway because he did not veto it within 10 days of its passage. Someone must have told him that vetoing a bipartisan housing bill would probably look pretty bad while a majority of Americans are struggling with high prices on everything from homes to groceries to gas.
• A federal judge ruled that the DOJ cannot obtain the names and contact information of Fulton County, Georgia, poll workers from the 2020 election. Trump has claimed for years that the election there was rigged, despite numerous recounts confirming that he did, indeed, lose — fair and square. Lawyers for Fulton County argued that the request was an attempt to intimidate volunteer poll workers. The DOJ claimed the information was essential to its investigation into election interference even though the statute of limitations for prosecuting any crime has expired.

#2) GAZA UNDER FIRE

There's supposed to be a ceasefire in Gaza but Palestinians are still being killed, aid remains restricted, and Israel is blocking the governing body that was supposed to take over Gaza under the agreement. Meanwhile, Hamas says it is stepping away from governing Gaza — removing one of Israel’s stated justifications for continuing the genocidal war.

This week:

• An estimated 20 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, bringing the death toll since the agreement took effect to nearly 1,100 — and the overall toll since October 2023 to more than 73,100. Israeli forces executed a truck driver for World Central Kitchen, and an Israeli attack killed an Egyptian Relief Committee worker who organized World Cup watch parties for Palestinians just hours before the match.
• Hamas announced that it is dissolving its Gaza governing body after more than two decades of governing the enclave. “Hamas has taken a new step in that it will no longer be in charge of the Gaza Strip, in order to remove any pretexts for the occupation, which continues its aggression and war of extermination,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told the AFP news agency.
  • Under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, a new technocratic governing body known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, or NCAG, is supposed to take over. The committee falls under Trump’s “Board of Peace,” but Israel has blocked its members from entering Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. Israel claimed Hamas' announcement was a "stunt."
• Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is in critical condition after months of abuse and torture in Israeli prisons, where he has been held without charge for 18 months, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Abu Safiya’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh. Israeli forces kidnapped Abu Safiya — the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza and its head of pediatrics — after he refused orders to abandon dozens of immobile patients, from infants to elderly people. According to his lawyer, Abu Safiya told him: “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.”
  • The Israeli military claims Abu Safiya is being held on suspicion of helping Hamas, which his lawyers, colleagues and family deny. Israel has not charged him or offered any evidence since his arrest. Israeli authorities also deny that he is being starved, abused or tortured. But during a recent court appearance, Abu Safiya appeared gaunt and had bruises and lash marks on his arms, the AP reports.
• Israel continues to violate the ceasefire agreement including blocking the delivery of fuel needed to power critical infrastructure like hospitals. Al Jazeera reports that "an ongoing blockade on Gaza has resulted in severe shortages of fuel needed for generators, which power essential life-saving medical equipment at hospitals such as ventilators, incubators and monitoring devices. The use of non-original engine oils due to the blockade has resulted in generators malfunctioning or affected their performance."

#3) ANOTHER FATAL ICE SHOOTING

No one has been held accountable for the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, despite overwhelming evidence — including video of both killings. That lack of accountability has left federal agents with little reason to show humility or caution that should follow the killing of two people.

And it is could be why... someone else is dead this week.

An ICE agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on Tuesday during a traffic stop. DHS claims Araujo “weaponized” his car against agents but has provided no evidence to support that claim. None of the agents involved were wearing body cameras. Agents also claimed the Good used her vehicle to attack agents but video evidence proved she did not.

Three witnesses who were in the vehicle with Araujo told The Washington Post 🎁 that the government’s account is false and that no agents were positioned in front of or behind the vehicle.

Araujo was a father of three who had lived in the US for 30 years. He was undocumented. His family says he was in the process of obtaining a work permit. He had no criminal history.

Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), who represents Houston, said ICE told her that agents had mistaken Araujo for a wanted individual.

Araujo’s brother, who was in the car and witnessed the shooting, said he heard an ICE agent mockingly say to Araujo: “‘Se querían escapar, ¿verdad?’” — “You wanted to escape, right?”

"ICE’s account of his killing echoed many of the statements the agency quickly issued in other shootings that resulted in fatalities or injuries to undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens. In several instances, however, video evidence and testimony from witnesses contradicted the agency’s initial accounts, establishing that the officers were not in danger and, in some cases, acted as the aggressors.” - The Washington Post

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that she will lobby the US to open criminal investigations into the killings.

"According to the Mexican government, 14 Mexican nationals have died in ICE custody and three others have been killed during immigration enforcement operations," Al Jazeera reports.

• Trump said the interim agreement to cease hostilities with Iran was “over” after a series of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz that the US blamed on Iran. “They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people,” Trump said during a trip to Turkey for a NATO summit." As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them.” Iran retaliated with strikes on U.S. assets in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Trump also claimed that Iran is planning to assassinate him and said he had instructed the U.S. military to “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran” if that happens. The so-called intelligence came from Israel, The Wall Street Journal reports. 🎁
  • Related:
    • A lawsuit alleges that the U.S. gave Iranian officials sensitive information about Iranians seeking asylum in the US and then deported those asylum seekers back to Iran, jeopardizing their lives. ICE claims it follows protocols that allow detained immigrants access to consular officials.
    • Iranians buried Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran in February.
• CNN reports that senior military leaders overrode warnings that their intelligence on Iranian targets was outdated but ordered strikes anyway — including the attack on a school in Minab, Iran, that killed more than 170 people, most of them schoolchildren.
• Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has apparently been in the hospital for weeks and no one knows why because his office won't say. After rumors began swirling this week that McConnell was actually brain-dead — several Republicans claimed they had lengthy chats with McConnell from his hospital bed where he was… well, alive.. and lucid. New video obtained by CNN shows EMS arriving at McConnell's home on June 14 – responding to someone unconscious and suffering from cardiac arrest. They didn't seem like they were in a rush causing some to wonder if it's because McConnell was already deceased.

• Graham Platner, who was running for U.S. Senate in Maine as a Democrat, dropped out after a former girlfriend accused him of rape. Platner denies the allegation. The woman, Jenny Racicot, told POLITICO that she decided to come forward after allegations from another woman that Platner had mistreated her were dismissed because of that woman’s ties to the Republican Party. Racicot, who says she is politically aligned with Platner, said she believed voters needed to know more about who he is. “I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.” Democrats have until July 27 to select a new candidate.

• A federal judge ruled that writer E. Jean Carroll can collect $5.8 million in damages and interest she's owed by Trump after he was found liable of sexually assaulting and defaming her. The money was held in escrow until now. Carroll said Trump raped her in a department store in the 90s. He later claimed they'd never met and said her claims were a "hoax."

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