President Donald Trump appears to be preparing to declare the 2026 midterm elections fraudulent before voting begins, according to his biographer Michael Wolff, who says Trump’s forceful promotion of the contested SAVE America Act is a deliberate move to shield against expected Republican losses this November.
Wolff, co-host of The Daily Beast’s “Inside Trump’s Head” podcast, told Joanna Coles on Tuesday, March 24 that Trump is aware his signature voting reform lacks enough support in Congress — and that’s intentional. Wolff argues the president is advancing the bill to set up a preemptive explanation: if Republicans lose seats in November, he can blame Democrats for obstructing election changes.
The SAVE America Act, debated in the Senate before a recess planned through April 13, would require proof of citizenship to register, greatly limit mail-in voting, ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports, and bar gender-affirming surgeries for minors via amendments. Brennan Center research indicates more than 21 million Americans do not have easy access to the documents the bill would demand, meaning nearly 10 percent of voting-age citizens could face major new obstacles to voting.
On March 26, Democrats defeated a Republican amendment seen as the GOP’s best chance to move the bill forward since floor debate began on March 17, contributing to the Senate adjourning for recess without a final vote. Some backers have since suggested using budget reconciliation to avoid the 60-vote filibuster requirement, though procedural constraints make that route unlikely. Despite the bill’s slim chance, Trump has made its passage a central condition in talks to reopen the Department of Homeland Security amid a partial shutdown now in its sixth week, insisting DHS funding — including pay for unpaid TSA employees facing historic callout rates — be tied to the SAVE Act.
Several polls show the 79-year-old president and his party trailing in approval. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 36 percent approved of Trump’s job performance, down from 40 percent the prior week. The Silver Bulletin average listed Trump’s net approval at -16.7 as of March 28, a new second-term low. Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by six points, and with the out-party often gaining ground before midterms, forecasters see a real risk Republicans could lose control of the House.
Drivers of voter discontent include Trump’s war with Iran, launched on Feb. 28 in coordination with Israel without congressional approval and now in its fifth week; the ongoing DHS shutdown that has left 100,000 federal employees unpaid; ICE deployments to airports; and internal disputes among Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Jared Kushner over Middle East policy.
Just before 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Trump repeated on Truth Social his long-debunked claim that non-U.S. citizens vote in U.S. elections at large scale. “Democrats are desperate to keep illegals, no matter how bad or dangerous they may be, in the Country. They want them to VOTE!” he posted at 1:48 a.m.
State audits present a different picture. Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger found only 20 noncitizens registered to vote in an October 2024 audit of 8.2 million registrants, with just nine ever voting. Michigan’s Department of State identified 15 instances of noncitizens voting in the 2024 presidential election — 0.00028 percent of more than 5.7 million ballots cast.
Wolff says Trump’s persistence on the voter-fraud theme serves a tactical role beyond policy: “It’s just what is to his advantage is just the narrative that the election system in the United States is broken.”
The biographer suggested Trump has used this strategy repeatedly. When Coles noted that Trump sees the system as perfect when he wins and rigged when he loses, Wolff responded: “Yes, but he’s not going to win. So the system is going to be rigged.”
The White House responded 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 implies Trump is preparing not for victory but for a familiar aftermath: asserting the system was rigged against him. Whether the SAVE Act passes or fails, it appears intended to give the president ready-made talking points if Republicans suffer losses this November.
Amid mounting domestic and international crises, an aimless war, gas prices up nearly a dollar per gallon since February, and unpaid federal workers, voters will decide whether to accept another round of election denial from a president whose claims of widespread voter fraud have been repeatedly challenged by officials, including some in his own party.