“Robert B. Hubbell: On Monday [August 18, 2025], Trump contradicted a provision of the US Constitution that has remained unchanged since its effective date in 1788. Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 states:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

Trump proclaimed on Monday that

the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government… tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY

I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES…”

Of course, the Constitution says exactly the opposite of Trump’s statement. The Constitution will prevail. Even the corrupt majority on the Supreme Court will not strip the states of their constitutional role in running elections. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo put it well when he wrote the following about Trump’s claim:

Put simply, this is total bullshit.

The president has basically nothing to do with election administration. States run American elections. Period. Congress, within certain parameters, can make laws with standards that states must apply. But states still administer them. This is a foundational, constitutionally-mandated and structural feature of the American republic. Trump’s claims are so far from anything even remotely legal or constitutional that I doubt even the corrupted federal judiciary will have much truck with it.

The fact that Trump’s proposal flatly contradicts the US Constitution should come as no surprise. Trump admitted that the source of his anti-democratic idea of prohibiting mail-in ballots came from Vladimir Putin. See New York Intelligencer, Trump Threatens to Ban Mail Voting, Notes Putin Agrees. (“Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting,” Trump said on Fox News Channel’s Hannity. “He said there’s not a country in the world that uses it now.”) Trump’s claim that no other nation in the world allows mail-in ballots is false. (“We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.”)

A fact-check by CNN Politics debunked Trump’s claim:

False. Dozens of other countries use mail-in voting, as CNN and others have pointed out when Trump has made such claims before. These countries include Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Switzerland.

…and Rebecca Solnit noted that of Trump’s 274 executive orders, 110 have been blocked, 90 are currently in litigation, and 74 are in effect, a success rate for Trump’s executive orders of 27%. See AP News, Tracking the lawsuits against the Trump administration. An executive order banning mail-in ballots would be invalidated, like 40% have already been, with 33% still threatened with invalidation…”