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THE SILVER LINING OF TRUMP’S REHEATED ELECTION DENIALISM  
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Brian Tyler Cohen
July 17, 2026
The xxxxxx
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*
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*
*
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_ Take Trump seriously. Take him literally. But also see his speech
for what it is: He knows he’s losing. _

Trump speech, July 16, 2026, screen grab

 

HOURS BEFORE DONALD TRUMP addressed the nation Thursday night, his
press secretary Karoline Leavitt promised he would deliver shocking
claims.

They did not materialize.

What we got instead was reheated election conspiracy theories in a
winding, largely nonsensical speech that several media outlets saw
little value in airing live.

In it, Trump claimed that China gained access to more than 200 million
voter files (in most states, voter data can be freely downloaded
online; in some states, it is available for purchase). He claimed that
Venezuela plotted to manipulate its domestic voting technology (this
scheme, according to the CIA, could not be replicated abroad). He
claimed that more than a quarter of a million noncitizens are on the
voter rolls (a number that seems to be exaggerated by about 99.96
percent—or 900 percent if you’re a fan of Trump math).

The speech was so flat that _Fox & Friends_ failed to to mention it
even once
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during their broadcast the next morning. Apparently, the network felt
that the prospect of another $787 million lawsuit wasn’t worth
re-engaging in tired 2020 election denialism.

And yet, the Trump speech was shocking in ways that Leavitt probably
didn’t envision or intend.

The address made clear that the president is hellbent on attempting to
seize control of how elections are run in this country. His Department
of Justice is suing
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thirty states plus Washington, D.C. for their unredacted voter rolls,
for which they are currently 0–16 in court. His Department of
Homeland Security is demanding access to run those rolls through
citizenship-verification systems that keep wrongly flagging eligible
voters
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White House officials refuse to rule out
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the possibility of sending ICE agents to the polls. And Trump wants
the voter-suppressing SAVE America Act to pass so badly that he was
willing to sacrifice his housing bill for it. Hell, he exploited the
death of Lindsey Graham to push it—unless, of course, you believe
that Graham’s dying words
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to Trump were indeed that he wants to see the SAVE America Act passed.

The good news, for now, is none of it is working. But that just means
Trump is going to swing for the fences. The _Washington Post_ reported
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back in February that Trump allies have drafted a seventeen-page
executive order that would let him declare a national emergency over
supposed foreign election interference. But even Trump understands
that he needs a pretext, flimsy though it may be. Thursday’s speech
is his effort to create exactly that. It was the foundation to try and
claim fraud. It was him gearing up to declare that _the system is
broken and China or Venezuela or [insert foreign country here] will
interfere in our elections and, as such, I have no choice but to take
extraordinary action to prevent that from happening again!_ Is he
being honest? Not at all. But Trump doesn’t need to be. He’s
post-truth. He just needs people to believe the lie. After all,
remember this statement
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from the aftermath of the 2020 election: “Just say the election was
corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”1
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Trump has one setting, and he’s showcasing it.

But there is a silver lining here. If Trump were operating from a
position of strength, he wouldn’t have to do this. He wouldn’t
have to serve up tired and convoluted conspiracy theories about a
six-year-old election that don’t resonate beyond his diehard base.
But he’s not operating from a place of strength. And Americans know
it. He knows it.

The problem Republicans face in having full control of government is
that there are no Democrats to point to and blame. No Democrats to
blame for surging costs, high inflation, a new war in the Middle East,
suppressed Epstein files, high gas prices, and a government focused
more on vanity projects for Dear Leader than lower prices for their
own constituents. Trump wouldn’t need to engage in election
denialism if he were winning; he engages in it because he knows that
he’s not.

NONE OF WHICH IS TO SAY that we shouldn’t be concerned, vigilant, or
worried as we head toward the midterms. But insofar as political
gravity still exists, it presents what may very well be an
insurmountable hurdle for the Republican party in these midterms.

To that end, there is also a lesson for Democrats to take from
Thursday night. Trump is putting on a clinic in wielding power. And
while he does it for self-enrichment, the Democrats can—and, as I
argue in my new book, _The Day After: How to Wield Power in a
Post-Trump World_ [[link removed]],
_MUST_—wield power _aggressively_ for virtuous reasons, should they
win power back in the midterms. They must do it to deliver on health
care, on voting rights, on climate, on a just economy, and so much
more. They must remember that they are not in office to defend the
institutions of government; they are there to deliver for the American
people, including the defense of the sanctity of our elections.

_Brian Tyler Cohen_
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is the author of the new book __The Day After: How to Wield Power in a
Post-Trump World_ [[link removed]]_,
now on sale. His first book, Shameless, was a #1 New York Times
bestseller._

1
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Richard Donoghue, Trump’s ex-acting deputy attorney general,
testified to Congress that these were Trump’s exact words during a
December 2020 phone call.

_You may have noticed that sh*t has gotten weird the last few
years. __The xxxxxx_ [[link removed]]_ was founded
to provide analysis and reporting in defense of America’s liberal
democracy. That’s it. That’s the mission. The xxxxxx was founded
in 2019 by Sarah Longwell, Charlie Sykes, and Bill Kristol._

* Donald Trump
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* election deniers
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*
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*
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