If Trump plans a "Reichstag Fire event" to cancel the 2026 Mid-terms, how exactly would that play out?

[Chasstev365]

We know the GOP and Supreme Court would not resist and Democrats don't have power. Blue States might say, well we run our elections and we're going forth anyway.

However, my real question is will the American people be sheep and just lay down?

[themaguffin]

1. States run the elections. If some red states oblige trump, they screw themselves. Also terms end. Current members don't

get to just stay. If Alabama doesn't hold elections, they won't have House members come January.

[Chasstev365]

2. God, I hope you are right!

I wish a group of Democratic governors would hold a joint press conference and remind Americans that Trump has zero constitutional power to cancel elections BEFORE he tries.

[themaguffin]

3. I would add that if R states cancel, means no state offices would be determined that should be. It would truly be...

stupid for the GOP to do and likely why you won't hear much about this from GOP states.

[Kaleva]

4. It was Hindenburg that issued the Reichstag Fire Decree

Hitler didn’t have the authority to do so.

A fatal weakness of the Weimar Constitution was that Article 48 allowed the President to rule by decree.

The US Constitution has no such article.

[Chasstev365]

5. Fair Points

However, Hitler and the Nazis were able to convince the elderly Von Hindenburg that it was the communists that started the fire. Without Nazi influence over an fading old man it might not have been issued. My point is that the Reichstag Fire Decree was the creation of the Nazis and not Von Hindenburg alone.

Also, if you have a Supreme Court that literally created "Presidential Immunity" out of thin air, all bets are off.

[Kaleva]

7. However, our Constitution doesn't allow one to rule by decree

There is nothing in the US Constitution that is anything close to similar to Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution.

[Chasstev365]

8. I hear you and hope you are correct!

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. It wouldn't play out, because it's not going to happen.

States run elections, they cannot and will not be cancelled.

Elections were held during every war, including the Civil War, and following 9/11.

Nationwide martial law is a physical impossibility, especially now, with our troops otherwise preoccupied.

There aren’t enough ICE agents either, and talk of only needing to send ICE to “strategic” locations is silly, since over the past year, 2024 Trump +20 districts have been swinging 15-30+ points towards the Dems in actual elections - with almost 200,000 polling places in the US, how are they going to choose which ones to disrupt with their meager resources?

Yes, there will be plenty of chicanery and ratfuckery, but nevertheless, nothing will stop the Blue Tsunami in November.

The dystopian fantasies around cancelled/rigged elections never account for the pushback from the states, the courts and the people. Despite acting with lawless impunity on a daily basis, This administration has been stalled, stymied or restrained numerous times.

Never forget this one absolute truth:

Trump is not omnipotent, and the states and the people are not powerless