MaddowBlog-Trump muses on midterms: 'When you think of it, we shouldn't even have an election'

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Every time the president talks about not having elections, his authoritarian vision comes into sharper focus

Trump told Reuters this week, “When you think of it, we shouldn't even have an election.”

This wasn’t a one-off: He’s made similar comments too many times before, making his overt hostility toward democracy plain. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-15T16:33:40.462Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-muses-on-midterms-when-you-think-of-it-we-shouldnt-even-have-an-election

This week, the Republican raised a similar observation during an Oval Office interview with Reuters’ Steve Holland — but this time, Trump offered one additional thought. From the Reuters report:

The president expressed frustration that his Republican Party could lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate in this year’s midterm elections, citing historical trends that have seen the party in power lose seats in the second year of a presidency.

‘It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,’ Trump said. He boasted that he had accomplished so much that ‘when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.’

Trump’s incessant focus on the historical pattern seems designed to avoid blame: If and when Republicans fare poorly, the president apparently wants to be able to say, “No one should blame me, this is what always happens.”.....

A year earlier, in the run-up to Election Day 2024, the then-candidate reflected on his professed popularity and asked, “So why are we having an election?”

Conservatives are likely to see the quote Trump offered to Reuters and shrug, brushing it off as a harmless aside. But throughout his career, he’s repeatedly rejected the idea that Americans can resolve their differences at the ballot box and asserted that he’d only accept election results that align with his hopes and expectations.

Every time he muses about the United States not having elections, his authoritarian vision comes into sharper focus.

This was NOT a joke. trump does NOT have a sense of humor and does NOT tell jokes

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. trump was kidding about cancelling U.S. elections- it's a "joke" he's told a few too many times

If Trump was kidding about cancelling U.S. elections, it’s worth keeping in mind that it’s a “joke” he’s told a few too many times: tinyurl.com/357jh5hp

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-15T21:45:19.340Z