Opinion: Worth asking this July 4 weekend — will Trump conspire with GOP to cancel 2026 elections?

The Republican House and Senate, with narrow majorities, just passed Trump’s Big Butt-ugly Bill that will rob from the poor, give to the rich and put a struggling middle class under incredible economic pressure, from Trump’s temper-tantrum tariffs that cost jobs and increase expenses for trips to the grocery store or gas station, much less car dealerships.

Medicaid is getting gutted, meaning millions will be pressed to pay their medical bills, leading to bankruptcies, foreclosures and families joining the growing ranks of the homeless. Rural hospitals and clinics will close, while nursing homes all over the country will kick out Medicaid patients. 

Got a spare bedroom, or a couch for grandma?

And don’t worry about obesity, because people who don’t eat much lose weight. Eventually, that is, after first resorting to cheap, fast, unhealthy food. Food assistance programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) have also been gutted, increasing the severity of poverty. School kids won’t have hot breakfasts or lunches to ease growling stomachs at school.

And all that anxiety, pain, suffering and growing costs, just to give billionaires more tax cuts and drive up the national debt by trillions.

Republicans capable of rational thought, or even humanity, know that robbing the poor to give to the rich is going to cause trouble, maybe even a Blue tsunami at the polls during 2026 elections. They have seen angry crowds at town halls, as well as massive protest demonstrations across the country. 

So why did they vote for Trump’s bill?

Well, they can count on generous campaign donations from the 1%, and lots of help from Trump’s minions to make it harder to vote for women and minorities.

But what if Republicans conspired to cancel the 2026 elections? Any guarantee that elections would be held in 2028 or beyond?

When Trump sent the California National Guard and active duty Marines into Los Angeles, he was hoping not to calm things down, but to provoke bigger protests that would escalate beyond demonstrations, noise and signs, but to shoving, fists and gunfire, all the better to declare an insurrection and martial law. So far, that hasn’t happened in LA or other Blue cities, but who’s to say what unfolds over the next 16 months until November 2026?

Republican commissioners in Dade County, Florida (Miami) just cancelled the 2026 elections. We will see whether that decision stands, but it is a precedent that might grow in Red states or nationally, to balk or frustrate really angry voters.

Stay tuned.

Editor’s note: This opinion piece first appeared on the Colorado Times Recorder website. Farquhar is a misplaced Scot based in Hayden, Colorado. He is an award-winning journalist with 21 national, regional and state press associations, from Colorado, Arizona, Kansas, Washington and Wyoming.