Our Election-Fraudster-in-Chief

THE FXBG ADVANCE WEDNESDAY 9/16/26 AFTERNOON READ

By Donnie Johnston, ADVANCE COLUMNIST

Jonathan Borba/Unsplash

What would happen if I stood out in front of my election precinct door and offered each voter a specific amount of money to vote for my candidate?

I’d be arrested, of course. It is called election fraud, buying votes and it is—at least I thought it was—illegal.

Yet Donald Trump, the president of these United States, can stand up at the Republican Mid-term Convention in Texas and promise every adult American a $5,000 check if the GOP candidates win in November.

Of course he was lying, just as he had previously lied about the other $5,000 Doge check and the $2,000 tariff check that every person in this country was going to get.

But those were just hollow promises that no one—except the very gullible MAGA faithful— thought would ever be fulfilled. This is promising each voter a specific dollar amount of money ($5,000 per person would amount to $1.3 trillion) to vote for specific candidates. This is voter fraud. Bribery.

It reminds me of a story my great uncle, who worked in the factories of the Midwest in the early 1920s, used to tell. He said that before labor unions, the owner of a factory might post a sign on the bulletin board that stated, in large letters, “If John Jones doesn’t get elected, this factory will close.”

Of course, the factory wouldn’t close if Jones lost, but the workers, who had families to feed, couldn’t take that chance. So, they all voted for Jones. In this way, the wealthy factory owners controlled the elections.

Trump is attempting to do the same thing, in effect paying voters to keep him in power. He knows that if Democrats win in November, his day is finished and he will likely be impeached—for a third time. So, he is turning to bribery to stay in office.

Trump, who has a dismal 30 percent approval rating, rambled on for nearly two hours at last week’s poorly attended GOP convention. He said that we are winning the war with Iran—which he has claimed we won on numerous occasions—and declared that he would rename the Strait of Hormuz the “Trump Strait” in the very near future.

He also insisted that New Mexico is now New America, Lake Ontario is now Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America. And he added that he had considered renaming one of the two major oceans that he said border the U.S. (he didn’t mention the Arctic), joking that he could get away with renaming one but maybe not both.

Each of the declarations or proclamations or fantasy ideas drew applause and cries of joy from the small turnout of Trump fanatics in attendance (the president himself alluded to the half full auditorium during his speech).

He also spoke of his grandiose ballroom, now under construction at a time when gasoline is at an all-time high ($4.15 a gallon, with diesel at $5.89) and the price of groceries continues to rise.

Trump’s GOP speech, part of a push to raise money for Republican candidates, came just two days after the president recounted being lifted out of the World Trade Center rubble by heroic New York first responders, a story which within hours was proven to be a fabrication.

And it came three days after this man sent out a fake photo of himself as a four-star general in full military uniform, again to the delight of Trump cult members, many of whom actually fought in America’s wars.

A decade ago, if someone had even suggested such folly from the president of the United States, no one would have believed it. And no one would have put up with such malfeasance of office. Now it is common practice, just “Trump being Trump.” That’s like saying Hitler imprisoning Jews was “Just Hitler being Hitler.”

What kind of nation have we become? The president is a combination of Bozo the Clown and Joseph Stalin, and his followers think that is wonderful.

The mid-term elections worry me. No matter how they turn out, there may be violence. Non-Trumpers (competent Republicans, Democrats, and independents), have had enough, and if the elections result in the GOP controlling Congress, the inner cities may go up in smoke.

On the other hand, Trump and his followers will never accept the truth if the GOP loses big, and the president will likely have the military confiscate all results long before any newly elected Democrats have a chance to take office.

I am concerned that the GOP will win, and we will have two more years of utter chaos. Many Republicans would vote for Hitler if he was on the ballot with an R beside his name. That’s the GOP mentality. And Trump told his convention audience to pretend that HE was on the ballot.

And if elected, Republicans will continue to do the bidding of the man in the White House.

If Democrats win and Trump is impeached, I worry that he may decide to go out in a blaze of glory—nuclear style. After all, he has on several occasions threatened to blow Iran off the map.

The mid-terms are eight weeks away. The last time we had an election of this magnitude was in 1860. It resulted in a civil war.

Regarding the mid-terms, Trump asked his Texas audience to pledge their loyalty to him and to “cheat like hell!” And the people cheered. Think how this would have gone over if a Democrat had sought such allegiance and dishonesty.

Last week, several noted scientists and engineers were quoted as saying that there is a 10 percent chance that artificial intelligence will wipe out the human race within a decade.

These mid-term elections may move up the timetable.