For all its splendor, our Constitution does have this vexing tendency to leave some concepts a bit murky. What exactly counts as “high crimes and misdemeanors” sufficient for impeachment? Are we all just agreeing to ignore the part about how each House member can represent a maximum of 30,000 people? What even is a “Letter of Marque and Reprisal”?

But when it comes to elections, our founding document is blessedly clear. It’s up to the states to set “times, places, and manner of holding elections,” and Congress can pass laws that override the states as it deems necessary. That’s it — direct and easy. The Constitution conspicuously omits the president here; the Founders understood the risk of centralizing power to run elections in the hands of the one person who already sits atop our government.

But now Donald Trump seems to be crafting a workaround, or perhaps a work-through, for the 2026 midterms. All indications are that he’s quite serious about stealing the upcoming elections, including through dubious if inventive means. If he tries, it will get ugly — but he will ultimately fail in the courts.

In an interview last week, Wayne Allyn Root of Real America’s Voice could barely keep from hyperventilating as he told the president that he has “the right to declare a national security emergency for elections” and that “if you declare a national security emergency as the president of the United States, they can’t challenge it. It can only be overturned by a two-thirds vote by both houses of Congress.” Trump........

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