• by Joe Mandese , Yesterday

Following a Supreme Court ruling that the president can fire any federal employee he wants, Trump has canned the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, an independent nonpartisan commission created to help states administer their elections.

The move comes just 116 days before the midterm elections, and as Trump piles on rhetoric about the integrity of U.S. elections and pushes his so-called SAVE Act, which would create new barriers for American voters to participate.

"There should be no doubt in any American’s mind: the biggest threat to the integrity of the 2026 midterms is President Donald Trump," warns Michael McNulty, director of policy at cross-partisan political reform advocacy Issue One, adding: "This is not a partisan message, simply a factual one.

"Our Constitution is clear that state and local bodies – not the president – run elections, and yet President Trump is doing everything within his power to sow mistrust and usurp the balance of power established by our Founding Fathers in the system of checks and balances and federalism that they created."

While the EAC historically has not played a direct role in running elections, McNulty says the deprecation of its role helping states is part of a broader pattern by the Trump Administration to centralize control over election administration and "tilt the playing field."

The Supreme Court ruling giving him the authority to dismember the EAC was actually prompted by Trump's firing of the last remaining Democratic commissioner, and is part of a broader push to have partisan control of every aspect of the federal government, including agencies that oversee advertising, media and marketing.

While the FTC is intended to have five commissioners with no more than three from the same party, Trump's firings currently leave the commission with just two, both Republicans.

"This is all a pattern directly out of an election takeover playbook," says Issue One's McNulty, "and it must be stopped by all Americans – Republicans and Democrats alike – for the sake of our nation.”