{"id":2512,"date":"2026-06-19T10:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2512"},"modified":"2026-06-19T10:07:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:07:56","slug":"calmes-trump-is-stealing-americans-faith-in-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2512","title":{"rendered":"Calmes: Trump is stealing Americans’ faith in elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It hasn\u2019t even been a year since President Donald Trump, the temporary resident of the White House, unilaterally announced he was adding a $200 million ballroom. (He didn\u2019t mention he\u2019d be tearing down the century-old East Wing to make room.) In the 11 months since, the estimated cost of the project that he repeatedly boasts is \u201cunder budget and ahead of schedule\u201d has grown by a factor of seven. So has Trump\u2019s list of capital vanity projects: a renamed, redesigned Trump-Kennedy Center, a 250-foot triumphal arch, a so-called heroes garden of 250 statues, a $13 million resurfaced Reflecting Pool, gold-leafed equestrian statues, a South Lawn arena for Sunday\u2019s UFC cage fights celebrating Trump\u2019s 80th birthday and a new plan he sprung earlier this month for a \u201cTrump promenade\u201d from the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River.<\/p>\n

Read more Asking Eric: We saved for our daughter\u2019s wedding. Should we give her the money or have a party?<\/a><\/p>\n

At least Trump\u2019s name came off the memorial dedicated by law to the assassinated President Kennedy, thanks to a court order with which officials actually seem to be complying. Other Trump projects also face legal and political challenges that, polls suggest, most Americans hope will end or at least greatly shrink his self-branded capital makeover.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s an extra noxious irony of Trump\u2019s imperial building spree. It\u2019s underway even as he continues his decade-plus teardown of the metaphorical foundations of democracy: trust in free and fair elections.<\/p>\n

Spreading falsehoods<\/h4>\n

Trump\u2019s Big Lie about rigged elections and Democrats\u2019 supposed cheating \u2014 California being his latest target \u2014 is by now so familiar that many of us are all but inured to it, and have been for a long time. That\u2019s understandable, and arguably good for our mental health, but collectively dangerous for the nation. The majority of Republican voters accept the lie as truth.<\/p>\n

What better time than the summer of the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary of independence to reflect on how Trump\u2019s years of lying have corroded the citizenry\u2019s essential belief in the integrity of elections? Attention must be paid, especially ahead of midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n

With Republican candidates expected to get a drubbing given Trump\u2019s unpopularity, the president is expected to cry fraud in response \u2014 or, worse, employ the powers of government, even the military, to contest the results. Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has\u00a0warned\u00a0as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear that foreign interference is no longer the most pressing danger to our elections,\u201d Warner began an op-ed in late March in the New York Times. \u201cIt is increasingly evident that the greatest threat now comes from inside our own government.\u201d<\/p>\n

What might lie ahead is of course well worth contemplating and guarding against however we can. But let us not overlook the damage Trump has already done to the body politic.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Not so long ago, Americans generally took for granted that elections were on the up and up. With each year, more Americans don\u2019t even recall such halcyon days. If I had a dollar for every time Trump has baselessly cried \u201crigged election\u201d since 2015, I could build my own ballroom.<\/p>\n

Read more Harriette Cole: Our date was amazing until the bill came<\/a><\/p>\n

When trust in voting falls \u2014 as it has in the Trump years,\u00a0especially among Republicans\u00a0\u2014\u00a0so does voter turnout. Worse, millions of future voters are growing up not believing as I did that U.S. elections were a model for the world. Instead too many accept as a given of public discourse that our elections are suspect and an embarrassment to the world. Because no less than the president of the United States says so.<\/p>\n

Internal threats<\/h4>\n

Just last month in the Oval Office, Trump was surrounded by young students as he slumped in his chair at the Resolute Desk (for an event on physical fitness), and his meandering remarks included yet again a denial of his 2020 defeat: \u201cBad things happened. It was a rigged election.\u201d<\/p>\n

What an education for those youngsters. Directly from the first presidential candidate in U.S. history to reject an election result and refuse to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power to another. A role model he\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Trump\u2019s tirades against California have predictably come in response to the state\u2019s usual slow count after early June\u2019s elections of the overwhelming number of mail-in ballots (which Trump also calls fraudulent, and wants to ban, though he votes by mail himself). On the evening of June 2, his baseless case was further undercut when Republican Steve Hilton won the second spot on November\u2019s ballot for governor, up against Democrat Xavier Becerra.<\/p>\n

On NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d earlier this month , Trump was so irate at being told that he had no evidence, none, to support allegations that both the California elections and his 2020 loss were rigged that he ended the interview. \u201cWe\u2019re like a third-world country. Your elections are crooked and you\u2019re crooked,\u201d he told moderator Kristen Welker (condescendingly calling her \u201cdarling\u201d as he stomped off, crushing the dropped mic).<\/p>\n

Current Trump-fearing Republican officeholders and office-seekers \u2014 including Hilton; Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California now obsequiously\u00a0probing\u00a0for fraud; and\u00a0Trump nominees for judgeships and high-ranking executive posts\u00a0\u2014 all refuse to call the president on his lies. By contrast, it was eight former Republican officeholders, including former senators and federal judges, who in 2022 issued a report,\u00a0\u201cLost, Not Stolen,\u201d\u00a0debunking Trump\u2019s 2020 election myths by examining the scores of failed pro-Trump court cases.<\/p>\n

But for Trump\u2019s narcissism and insecurity it would be inexplicable that, reelected in 2024, he\u2019d still be lying about 2020 and undermining Americans\u2019 faith in democracy. He may succeed in building monuments to himself, but here\u2019s hoping the American people refuse to let him do to democracy what he did to the East Wing.<\/p>\n

Jackie Calmes is an opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times.\u00a0\u00a92026 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Miss Manners: Am I allowed to send back a tiny restaurant meal and request real food?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A relentless decade of groundless fraud claims is breaking the core foundation of American democracy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nCalmes: Trump is stealing Americans’ faith in elections - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2512\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calmes: Trump is stealing Americans’ faith in elections - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A relentless decade of groundless fraud claims is breaking the core foundation of American democracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2512\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-19T10:07:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2512#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2512\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Calmes: Trump is stealing Americans’ faith in elections\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-19T10:07:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2512\"},\"wordCount\":1041,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2512#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/80c59c4a5eec9f17b35f754d7705e689.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2512#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2512\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=2512\",\"name\":\"Calmes: Trump is stealing Americans’ faith in elections - 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