According to biographer Michael Wolff, President Donald Trump is establishing a foundation to declare the 2026 midterm elections fraudulent before ballots are even cast, according to his analysis that the president’s forceful advocacy for the controversial SAVE America Act constitutes a deliberate plan to justify expected Republican defeats in November.
During a Tuesday, March 24 episode of The Daily Beast’s “Inside Trump’s Head” podcast, which Wolff co-hosts with Joanna Coles, the biographer stated Trump understands his flagship voting legislation won’t garner enough support in Congress, but that’s exactly his intention. Wolff maintains Trump promotes the bill to create an advance explanation: if Republicans suffer seat losses in November, he can point fingers at Democrats for obstructing electoral reforms.
The SAVE America Act, which faced Senate discussion before lawmakers departed for a scheduled recess lasting until April 13, would require citizenship verification for voter registration, virtually abolish voting by mail, exclude transgender women from participating in women’s athletics, and block gender-affirming medical procedures for individuals under 18 through bill amendments. According to Brennan Center data, over 21 million Americans don’t have easy access to the documentation this legislation would mandate, potentially creating substantial voting obstacles for approximately 10 percent of the nation’s eligible voters.
Democrats successfully stopped a Republican amendment on March 26 that many viewed as Republicans’ strongest effort to push the bill forward since floor discussions commenced on March 17, a setback that led to the Senate recessing without holding a vote. Certain advocates have subsequently proposed utilizing the budget reconciliation mechanism to circumvent the 60-vote filibuster requirement, although procedural regulations make that route exceptionally challenging. Notwithstanding the legislation’s poor chances, President Trump has positioned its enactment as a core requirement in current discussions to restart the Department of Homeland Security after a partial closure now in its sixth week. He demands that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations, including compensation for unpaid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel experiencing unprecedented absence levels, be linked to the SAVE Act’s approval.
Numerous surveys indicate the 79-year-old president and his political party are significantly behind in public support. A Reuters/Ipsos survey recently revealed only 36 percent of Americans supported Trump’s job performance, declining from 40 percent in the prior week. The Silver Bulletin compilation indicates Trump’s net approval stands at -16.7 as of March 28, marking a fresh second-term record low. Democrats maintain a 6-point advantage in generic congressional polling, and since the party not in power usually makes gains approaching midterm elections, analysts predict Republicans confront a genuine possibility of forfeiting House majority status.
Adding to public discontent: Trump’s conflict with Iran, initiated on Feb. 28 alongside Israel without legislative authorization and currently in its fifth week, combined with the continuing DHS closure that has resulted in 100,000 federal workers going without pay, the assignment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel to airport facilities, and competing power dynamics between Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner regarding Middle East strategy.
Shortly before 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Trump resurrected his long-debunked claim on Truth Social that non-U.S. citizens vote in American elections on a massive scale. “Democrats are desperate to keep illegals, no matter how bad or dangerous they may be, in the Country. They want them to VOTE!” the president wrote at 1:48 a.m.
State-conducted reviews reveal a contrasting picture. During an October 2024 examination of 8.2 million registered voters, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger discovered merely 20 noncitizens on voter rolls, with only nine having actually voted. Michigan’s Department of State documented 15 cases of non-citizens voting in the 2024 presidential election, accounting for 0.00028 percent of the over 5.7 million votes tallied.
Wolff contends that Trump’s continued focus on the voter fraud story fulfills a tactical function beyond legislation: “It’s just what is to his advantage is just the narrative that the election system in the United States is broken.”
The Trump biographer indicated the president has employed this approach throughout his political career. When Coles observed that Trump considers the system perfect when he wins and rigged when he loses, Wolff replied bluntly: “Yes, but he’s not going to win. So the system is going to be rigged.”
The White House pushed back with a statement from Communications Director Steven Cheung: “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s*** and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
As the 2026 midterms approach, Wolff’s analysis indicates Trump is positioning himself not for winning elections but for a recognizable post-loss tactic: alleging the system was manipulated against him. The SAVE Act, regardless of its fate, seems crafted to supply the president with prepared talking points once Republican defeats accumulate this November.
Facing escalating problems domestically and internationally, a military conflict without defined goals, fuel costs rising almost a dollar per gallon since February, and government employees receiving no paychecks, voters will determine whether they embrace another iteration of election denial from a president whose assertions of widespread voter fraud have been consistently refuted by members of his own party.
