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Sam
Foreign.
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Heather Cox Richardson
Presumably afraid of investigations into his actions, President Donald J. Trump appears to have abandoned all pretense of governing for the good of the country and is focusing on rigging the 2026 election to keep Republicans in power. This morning, as the national association of realtors reported that U.S. home prices have hit an all time high, he announced that he will not sign the housing bill, which was designed to address the unaffordability of housing and which passed Congress with strong bipartisan majorities in protest over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing the Save America Act. As the Lincoln Project summed it up, the Republican Party's message four months before the midterms appears to be you're not getting affordable housing unless you give up your voting rights. His demand for the passage of a bill that most observers agree will suppress voting is only one of the ways that Trump is trying to rig the 2026 election. After federal judges have repeatedly prohibited the administration from seizing state voter lists, apparently to run through a program designed to identify non citizens who are not eligible for certain federal programs, something federal judges have also prohibited, Trump's appointees at the Department of Justice appear to have turned to trying to intimidate election officials. On Tuesday, the Department of justice confirmed that it has sent letters to election officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. warning them that they could be criminally prosecuted if non citizens vote. The letters came from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump loyalist, and gave them five days to detail how they will maintain clean voter lists. Utah Lt. Gov. Deirdre Henderson, a Republican, posted on social media, got another love letter this morning from the doj, sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution. I'm sure I'm not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ's demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts. This is truly bizarre behavior by the federal agency that is supposed to be protecting civil rights. Last night, Trump fired the last two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission, or eac, an independent federal commission that helps state and local officials make sure elections are smooth and secure. Among other things, it certifies voting machines and maintains the national mail voter registration forms. The only other current member of the eac, a Republican, resigned. The fourth member of the eac, a Republican, resigned earlier this year. A White House official told Justin Papp of CNBC that the Supreme Court recognized Trump's authority to fire the agency officials in its June 29 Trump vs Slaughter decision, which overturned more than 90 years of precedent to rubber stamp the president's right to fire agency officials who are not aligned with his political agenda. The president and head of the executive branch reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America's elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted, the official told papp. The Slaughter decision gives the president precedence to do so. Legal analyst Harry Littman says this interpretation of the Slaughter decision is a stretch. He noted that nothing in the agency cases held that Trump could simply shut down an agency of Congress's creation. That's what he's done with the Election Assistance Commission, which now lacks commissioners to act. It's taking the court's cases to the ultimate conclusion and just disabling an important agency. The nonpartisan nonprofit League of Women Voters, which works to protect the right to vote, called the removal of the Election Assistance Commission officials a direct attack on the independence of our nation's election infrastructure. The American people deserve elections administered by trusted professionals, not shaped by political interference. This is not a routine personnel decision. It is a dangerous escalation in the effort to weaken the safeguards that protect free and fair elections in the November midterms. This is the backdrop for the news from Betsy Klein and Kaitlan Collins of CNN today that the White House is fortifying the White House entrance at the North Portico during Trump's renovation of the Ionic columns there in March. Trump's appointee to the Commission on Fine Arts, which advises Trump on design matters, urged replacing the historic Ionic columns with more ornate Corinthian columns that would match the ones Trump picked out for his ballroom. The White House says the work on the North Portico is standard restoration work, but did not answer CNN's question about whether there would be more substantial changes to the North Portico. Trump recently posted pictures of the Corinthian columns at his proposed ballroom, boasting that when completed there will be nothing like it anywhere in the world. While the focus has been on the historic columns and their possible replacement, it is not until now we have learned about the strengthening of the White House door. The portico is now covered with scaffolding that is covered with a drape, and a White House official told Klein and Collins that the renovations will include security enhancements at the request of the US Secret Service. Dan diamond of the Washington Post also reported today that under the Trump administration, the Secret Service, the White House and the Interior Department are seeking to place permanent 8 to 9 foot tall fencing around Lafayette Square where tourists and protesters congregate in front of the White House. They are also considering fencing off the parts of Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House. In the past, when officials believed it was necessary to shut off access to Lafayette Square, they used temporary barriers to avoid the perception that they were restricting public access to what is known as the People's House. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the non voting congressional representative from the District of Columbia, objected. More fencing around the President's park would send the wrong message to the nation and the world by continuing to transform our democracy from one that is accessible and of the people to one that is exclusive and fearful of its own citizens, she said. Tonight at 11:59pm the housing bill became law without the President's signature.
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Narrator
Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss,
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Sam
Sam.