February 2, 2026
It’s up to you to decide whether President Trump is joking or not. And up to you to decide whether that’s even an appropriate “joke’ for the president to make. But what I’m interested in is – can he do that? Can the president of the United States cancel the midterm election or the presidential election. Or can republicans just “nationalize” the election? And ps… what does that even mean?
Ok –let’s talk about the facts. The short answer to all of it is no. No the president can’t cancel the election and no Republicans can’t on their own –just nationalize the election. But that’s not the whole story.
Before I get into this – just know I posted an exclusive deep dive video on all the things the constitution says about elections, and about all the things a president can do to impact the election and about why of all this might be happening right now. That video is for my paid subscriber it’s up on my Substack so if you’re interested just follow these steps to get to it.
Ok – so let’s get into it. As I said — no president of the United States has the power to cancel a midterm or presidential election. There is no such language in the constitution that gives the president that power. It doesn’t exist. But the constitution does talk about elections. A lot. And who has the power over them. Spoiler alert – generally it’s not the federal government.
Article one – section four is the big one. And it’s the reason why Trump today said Republicans should nationalize elections. The constitution says “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.”
That means– the constitution explicitly gives the states the power to determine the “time, place and manner” of holding elections. Not the federal government. The states. That clause means it’s up to the states to figure out the logistics, when, where and how to conduct elections for Senators, Representatives and the president. The Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to mean that states have control over voter registration, election supervision, prevention of fraud and counting of ballots just to name a few. But – this clause also gives congress the power to pass laws that can alter or make new regulations that will apply to these elections and provide national oversight. So the states get to conduct their elections in the way they see fit, but the congress can pass federal election laws. The only explicit thing congress cannot do is dictate the physical location where senators are chosen. But notice who’s not listed as being in charge of elections in any capacity??? The president of the United States.
So if that’s the case – can a state cancel the election? No. But in theory – it is possible that a state legislature or state governor could delay or postpone an election if there was some kind of catastrophic disaster – but that has never happened. And technically congress could try and pass a law to postpone an election but that has also never happened before. The united states held elections during the civil war and during both world wars. So I’m willing to bet you dollars to donuts the United States Congress would never pass a law postponing an election..
But remember how I said at the beginning of this video there’s more to the story? This is what I mean. Just because a president doesn’t have the power to cancel an election doesn’t mean he can’t do other things that would impact the election. There are actually a lot of things a president can do — and this push to nationalize elections is certainly one. In my deep dive video I talk about a bunch of others – but I want to focus on nationalizing elections in this video.
You see the president has a very powerful tool at his disposal. It’s called the bully pulpit. The president of the united states –no matter who it is– is the most powerful person in the world – when the American president speaks people listen. Whether those people are other world leaders, politicians in congress, the media or just the average American citizen. The president’s words have weight. They matter. Because people will act on them. And when it comes to president trump in particular – he uses the bully pulpit a lot and he’s particularly effective when he does. So right now – he’s using his bully pulpit power – to tell his republican party to nationalize the election. I’m not saying he’ll be successful…but it’s certainly something he’s talking about.
But what does that even mean? Nationalizing an election means the federal government would be in charge of running the election…not the states as the constitution explicitly says. While the White House wouldn’t clarify what Trump was specifically talking about – nationalizing an election could mean trump wants the federal government to have control over voter registration, supervising elections, investigating voter fraud and counting ballots. Now –the reality is the president can’t nationalize an election on his own…congress would have to pass a law to do that. It is unlikely that there would even be enough republicans to support such a change because Republicans traditionally have been very very very supportive of states rights – and conducting elections – is a pretty big constitutional right of the states. And even if Republicans were somehow able to pass a bill to nationalize elections, it would be immediately challenged in court.
But using the bully pulpit isn’t the only way a president can impact an election. He can deploy election monitors, direct his agencies to collect ballots or get a hold of voter data and sign executives orders – which trump has already done. So if you want to know more about all those things and about all the other things the constitution says about the election. Make sure you watch the deep dive.
Bottom line – no – presidents can’t cancel the election. But that doesn’t mean that he – or she—can’t impact the election in multiple ways.
