I could be wrong. I hope I am. When it comes to political predictions, my pattern recognition skills usually win. I predicted America’s defeat in Afghanistan, its failure to find WMDs in Iraq, how Trump would drive Americans crazy, and both of Trump’s wins, all long before anyone else. There was, however, my mistaken belief that Bernie would be the 2016 Democratic nominee. (I foolishly failed to account for DNC cheating.)
Here’s a prediction: If he’s still alive and in power, Trump will try to cancel the 2028 presidential election, and also the 2026 midterms. (I’m less certain about the midterms.)
My thinking goes like this. Trump has nearly three dozen felony convictions hanging over his head. Although he may never be sentenced and imprisoned for the Stormy Daniels hush-money charges, the reason that he hasn’t been held to legal account for other crimes past and present is that he is a sitting president. New charges could theoretically involve bribery, honest services fraud, emoluments violations, securities fraud and foreign influence over Trump’s World Liberty Financial and related crypto tokens, alleged to have illegally raked in hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.
Trump’s exposure to prosecution springs back to life at high noon on January 20, 2029.
The four years he spent between his two terms, much of which he spent in court fighting “lawfare,” have convinced Trump that Democrats are chomping at the bit to send him to prison as soon as they get a chance.
A true patriot would take his lumps for the sake of the republic. Donald Trump, however, is not the self-sacrificing type.
Since Trump’s greatest legal exposure is business fraud-related and thus state and not federal charges, neither a future president nor he himself can pardon him. A governor could do it, but it would be political suicide in a blue state like New York, where he has already been tried and convicted. Not going to happen.
Trump’s safest escape, short of fleeing into exile to a country without an extradition treaty with the U.S., is to remain president. But how? Conspiratorial schemes aside, the 22nd Amendment clearly prohibits him from serving a third term. That leaves one solution: canceling the 2028 election.
How? A wannabe president-turned-dictator’s first move would be to declare his 12th national emergency—his allies are already urging him to do so, in order to federalize balloting—that would make campaigning and holding an election seem impractical. Possible excuses: elections offices and polls have been hacked by a foreign country, immigrants voting illegally, terrorist threats, civil unrest, whatever.
Trump is thinking about it.
Last August, he was meeting with President Volodomir Zelensky, who has canceled all of Ukraine’s elections since the Russian invasion: “So you say, during the war, you can’t have elections,” said Trump. “So let me just say, three-and-half years from now. So you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections.” He’s got a big fat Middle East war going right now, and there’s no time like wartime when it comes to scaring the public with threats real and imagined.
“When you think of it, we shouldn’t even have [a midterm] election,” he said in January. His press secretary—but not the president himself—claimed he was joking.
If Trump coups himself, logic suggests he’d be smart to cancel the 2026 midterms rather than wait until 2028. First, voters are less vested in midterms. Second, victorious Democrats could become a thorn in his side next year after they capture the House along with its committee chairmanships and attendant investigative powers.
None of this will transpire should Trump’s heart crap out between now and November. A President Vance wouldn’t need to cancel elections; he isn’t worried about going to prison.
The question for you and me and 330 million Americans is: could we stop Trump?
The answer, clearly, is yes. But it won’t be easy.
First, I’ll tell you what will not work.
—Small street protests, attended by a few dozen or even a few hundred people
—Sporadic street protests, like the quarterly, performative “No Kings” marches
—Protests limited to a few states and cities
—Peaceful protests, no matter how frequent or large
—Lawsuits/legal action/the courts
Courts will be shut down under Trump’s bullshit “emergency” declaration. Not that matters; this Administration ignores court rulings and orders.
Trump will deploy ICE goon squads and the National Guard alongside local and state police under a formal or de facto form of martial law. They will be heavily armed. As we have seen across the nation, they will not hesitate to unleash deadly force against unarmed demonstrators. Whatever restraints some law enforcement officers might privately entertain will vanish under martial law.
It would be naive to hope for the military or police to refuse to carry out Trump’s orders. Most soldiers and cops are enthusiastic supporters of the president and his far-right policies—that’s why we’ve seen them cooperate and collaborate with far-right groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in Charlottesville and on January 6th, while mercilessly clashing with liberals defending migrants. Cops and the army will happily help Trump destroy what’s left of democracy.
Violent, organized resistance is the only hope under this scenario.
I am not telling you that this is what you should do. Nor am I telling you that, if you do it, it will work. Odds are, it won’t.
I am telling you what probably (but hopefully will not) will happen, and what might possibly prove effective to stopping it.
(Ted Rall, the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of “Never Mind the Democrats. Here’s What’s Left.” Subscribe: tedrall.Substack.com. He is co-host of the podcast “DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou.”)
