Trump's threats to November vote

The Republicans could lose both Houses of Congress in the US midterm elections on 3 November. Trump has a history of lashing out at losses, as following the 2020 presidential election which led to the 6 January 2021 storming of Congress and other attempts to overturn the result. He will stoop as low as he can to either win voters back or rig the election in his favour or both.

Trump may stage some big spectacle surrounding Cuba to win back support, maybe a forced "regime change" as he did with Venezuela or talked of having done in Iran. The Cuban regime is in great economic difficulties following the Trump coup in Venezuela and the USA's addition of a blockade to its 64-year-old embargo on Cuba. The US is looking for a "Delcy Rodriguez" figure in Cuba, but probably can't find one.

Trump has claimed that his losses in the past were down to voter fraud and large numbers of illegal immigrants falsely voting. His SAVE Act would make it mandatory to present proof of citizenship to vote. (Very few non-citizens vote. But many poorer citizens, and citizens of colour, do not have citizenship documents to hand). This has been blocked in the Senate (where the Republicans do not have the needed 60-40 majority to pass it). Courts have blocked Trump's attempts to achieve similar ends by executive order and to restrict postal voting, but the Supreme Court could yet help him.

Many Republican states, however, have already stepped up gerrymandering and limitations on voting. Trump probably will not be deterred from other attempts at curbing people's ability to vote, and certainly won’t stop claims of voter fraud come Republican losses. He can flood areas near polling stations with ICE thugs. Trump could even use the rule that, though the states run the voting, each House of Congress has the final say on the "elections and returns" of its own members, to have "his" outgoing Congress invalidate results.

Trump's attacks on voting rights must be opposed by the workers’ movement, by the trade unions and the left. As Trump continues his imperialist rampage, or tries to overturn the midterms, lessons must be learned from the Minnesota general strike this year, which did push back ICE, and the large-scale worker mobilisations for May Day. §