Weekend Report: Trump’s election fraud speech was a humiliating dud

Plus: Markwayne Mullin’s empty threat to jail state officials. And: ICE is failing in prosecuting protestors and immigrants.

Donald Trump’s prime-time speech on 2020 election fraud landed with a thud. Same old crap. Media across the political spectrum either panned it or ignored it, seeing it as Trump’s desperation heading into the 2026 midterms with dismal approval numbers. That doesn’t mean that Trump will not try to hijack the midterms nor that he doesn’t have plans to interfere. But he needed to present something more compelling in order for him to engage in the most harsh kinds of actions he’s been thinking about—and certainly ones that will get around the courts—and that just didn’t happen. The big question is how the White House is processing this disaster, and what support Trump has in MAGA…

Part of Trump’s effort was his handoff to the Homeland Security Secretary, Markwayne Mullin, who held a press conference the following day and made equally false claims. Mullin also threatened to jail state and local election officials who do not allow or cooperate with the federal government in its quest for voter rolls and determination to find non-citizens voting. He also threatened the administration would withhold funds for programs. But the letter DHS later sent to states didn’t square with what he said. And Democrats have won several major court battles against the administration on elections…

Amid the escalation in ICE executions against immigrants of the last few weeks, new reporting underscores how the Trump administration’s legal cases against ICE protesters and immigrants are falling apart, with the Justice Department abandoning hundreds of cases. That’s good news for the people affected, but it further reinforces the factual evidence regarding the recklessness of the administration and how the actions being taken are purely to intimidate and brutalize people…