Donald Trump appeared on Fox Business this week and was asked about recent developments on Capitol Hill. Predictably, the former president complained that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is “a disaster,” condemned the popular new infrastructure law, and whined that Republicans didn’t go far enough to threaten the United States with default before raising the debt ceiling.
But before moving on, Trump also emphasized what he saw as his most pressing concern.
“And we have a bigger problem, because they have a so-called voting rights bill, which is a voting rights for Democrats, because Republicans will never be elected again if that happens, if that passes.”
The on-air comments came on the heels of a related written statement from two weeks ago in which he said the Freedom to Vote Act would “make it almost impossible for Republicans to get elected in the future.”
To the extent that reality still has any meaning, these claims are demonstrably absurd. Virginia, for example, implemented some important and progressive voter-access reforms in recent years, and Republican candidates nevertheless scored major victories up and down the ballot in last month’s elections.
But factual details aside, consider the subtext of Trump’s arguments: The more Americans are allowed to participate in their own democracy, the more difficult it is for Republicans to win elections. It’s both a recipe for partisan voter-suppression tactics, and a subtle acknowledgment that, from Trump’s own perspective, the American mainstream isn’t eager to buy what the GOP is selling.








