Trump’s joke-to-policy tactic isn’t a joke

Over at Rick Wilson’s Against All Enemies anti-autocracy substack, Wilson nicely articulates how Trump and the MAGA demagoguery machine con people into accepting tyranny and corruption. His essay, The Coming Election Takeover, is another warning about what Trump and MAGA elites want to do to the 2026 midterm and later elections if they can pull it off. The joke-to-policy tactic has been seen multiple times. The tactic plays out generally like this:

1. In his public rants or social media posts, Trump floats an extreme, anti-democratic, anti-rule of law idea or anti-civil liberties idea. This signals his intent and the goal of the threat.
2. Authoritarian MAGA media characterizes his extremism and pro-tyranny intentions as just innocent jokes that are misunderstood or taken out of context. People who can’t see the threat as a joke are dismissed as humorless, irrational, mentally defective, or “snowflakes” who can’t take a joke. MAGA rejects criticisms out of hand as nonsense or bad faith smears. That allows MAGA to avoid dealing with legitimate criticisms of real anti-democracy threats.
3. MAGA propaganda then spins the threat as Trump having made a good, legitimate point.
4. Then there is an Executive Order or bill in congress.
5. Then Trump’s anti-democracy/anti-rule of law/anti-civil liberties threat becomes policy or law and the new norm from with to launch further MAGA tyranny attacks.

Wilson describes the process like this: “The MAGA media apparatus of Fox, Newsmax, CBS, the Twitter-poisoned podcast bros, and the MAGA Influencer-Industrial Complex fan out to tut-tut the horrified for being humorless scolds. He was kidding. You people are unhinged. Touch grass. Then, a beat later: well, he was kidding, but you have to admit he has a point. Then, a draft executive order leaks. Then it’s policy. Then it’s the law. Then it’s the new floor, and the next joke starts the cycle again, one rung lower”.

Regarding elections

Wilson points out that Trump has used joke-to-policy to attack the 2026 mid-term elections. First Trump says something outrageous like “maybe we shouldn’t have an election”. MAGA media propaganda frames it as either an unserious joke or raising a good point. Clearly, that was no joke. Then lawyers and politicians start drafting ways to translate the autocratic attack into practice. Ways to do that include Trump (1) issuing Executive Orders, (2) claiming and emergency and emergency powers, and (3) deploying his federal enforcers (ICE, FBI, etc.) or investigators (DOJ, etc.). For 2026, the joke-to-policy cycle is aimed at creating a legal and administrative framework to allow Trump’s team to disregard or override state-run election outcomes. The point of that kind of attack is to allow anti-election policy implementation with few or no lawsuits or court interventions.

Q1: Is the joke-to-policy argument mostly or completely false, or is it reasonably accurate in view of the evidence in the public record?

Q2: By treating serious objections to Trump’s tyrannical or corrupt threats as a failure to appreciate humor, (1) does MAGA rhetoric deflect from answering substantive criticism, (2) which turns politics into a culture war over who is “in on the joke” versus who is an unreasonable uptight enemy, or a humorless snowflake or crackpot?

Info sources:

“MAGA ‘secret’ exposed by ex-GOP operative as Republicans watch their ‘numbers go south’.”

‘Packaging evil into something funny’: is making fun of Trump now just ‘clownwashing’?

Jacob Neiheisel on How Trump Uses Humor and Labels to Divide

A timeline of Donald Trump’s election denial claims, which Republican politicians increasingly embrace

In MAGA world, Trump’s jokes always land

The corruption of MAGA comedy — The cruelty and crassness of Donald Trump’s dark sense of humor is quickly spreading

How humor and ‘dark play’ radicalize Trump’s voter base

Trump guts federal election integrity while our oblivious or complicit MSM rearranges the deck chairs

Another boat sinker iceberg is MAGA's rigged elections

What Trump and MAGA elites mean by “election integrity”

Various sources are reporting that Trump has just fired all EAC (Election Assistance Commission) commissioners. The EAC is within the larger FEC (Federal Elections Commission). That anti-election integrity move comes on top of Trump previously neutering the entire FEC by blocking appointment of commissioners. That left the FEC without a quorum and thus powerless to much of anything within the scope of its powers.

Without any commissioners to run the FEC, that federal agency is no longer capable of policing corruption and crimes by special interest money buying elections or politicians by any means that might meaningfully influence an election. The killing off of the EAC ends federal assistance for states to run and coordinate free and fair elections.

In the recent authoritarian MAGA USSC Trump v. Slaughter decision, the court gave Trump unlimited power to fire anyone in the executive branch for any or no reason. The firings of the EAC commissioners is fully protected by the new authoritarian power the USSC just gave Trump.

In other words, it is now perfectly legal for Trump to steer the ship of American democracy straight into huge icebergs of tyranny and corruption. MAGA’s goal is obvious. Sink the whole damned American experiment in a poisoned sea of tyranny and corruption by, e.g., subverting elections, starting with the 2026 midterm elections. This is what Trump, MAGA elites and their predecessors have always meant by “election integrity”. Now we have MAGA-style election integrity, whether we want it or not.

Not defending democracy and the rule of law isn’t harmless, it’s extremely harmful

The MSM’s worse than crappy reporting

One of the major systemic damages that Trump and MAGA elites and their radical right authoritarian predecessors have targeted is the MSM. Intelligent reporting is mostly gone. It has been replaced by Switzerland-style milquetoast neutrality. Most of the MSM no longer acts as if it gives a s#*t about what happens to us or our democracy, rule of law and civil liberties. The MSM has collapsed into a state almost total structural failure.

How can anyone rationally argue that MSM reporting about Trump and MAGA tyranny, corruption, and democracy-killing is neutral? Easy peasy. Here’s how. The structural failure here is that most MSM outlets are narrating democratic backsliding. The outlets are not sounding a civic alarm anywhere close to the actual risk of tyranny that isolated pockets of fact reporting fail to convey. What’s happening with the gutting of the EAC and related agencies illustrates how the MSM dutifully records the institutional damage, sometimes calling it “extraordinary”, gasp! , but they do not come close to treating it as the critical constitutional or democracy emergency it actually is. What Trump and MAGA elites are doing is not extraordinary. It is catastrophic! That’s far beyond the MSM’s milquetoast extraordinary.

Why is MSM reporting neutral? There are multiple reasons. One is that political reporters are trained into “balance,” sourcing from both parties and avoiding explicit normative claims. Even when one actor is clearly attacking democracy or elections, and degrading rule‑of‑law institutions, the default MSM frame is “ this is just a controversial move,” not “this is authoritarian tyranny attacking democracy and elections”. That is a huge problem. In my opinion it’s a major source of MSM failure.

Also, there is some fear/threat-inspired CSI syndrome (complicity, stupidity, incompetence) going on. Some reporters, opinionators and editors really do believe they are doing a good job by reporting facts but stopping short of connecting MAGA’s tyranny and corruption fact dots. Some are quietly or openly complicit. The dots are scattered all over the entire freaking MSM ecosystem. Connecting them is what Trump and MAGA elites hate and oppose. It takes a lot of effort to do that. Apparently, Trump and MAGA elites have threatened or scared the MSM’s dot-connecting job into almost complete oblivion.

And of course, there’s money and the profit motive. MSM outlets cannot survive without sufficient revenue. Trump and MAGA elites know that and apply pressure, in addition to pressure from advertisers. Trump has retaliated through denying access, regulatory threats, and public vilification. That is intentional. Threats and vilification put pressure on MSM self‑censorship. It forces the MSM to hedge in how far to go, if any at all, beyond the bare descriptive fact minimums. Collectively, the extremely powerful, always present profit motive and MAGA threats are always there pressuring to kill off the MSM’s dot-connecting duty. In other words, there are powerful incentives for the MSM to not do its damned job properly. So, it doesn’t. This is like falling off a log — MSM failure is not rocket science, it’s capitalism.

The gigantic gap between MSM’s neutral descriptions of MAGA’s ghastly democratic and rule of law damage coupled with the its lack of urgent alarm is what a person can call “neutrality”. As discussed here, such an assessment is opinion based on (1) the totality of the facts and truths I am aware of, and (2) application of my good faith, sound reasoning to those facts and truths. That is from the point of view of someone who staunchly supports secular, pluralistic democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties. So yes of course, opinions will and do differ a lot. But the reasons for seeing abject MSM failure and even complicity is open for everyone to assess for themselves. Some will see it, others will not.

Q1: Is Trump firing the EAC commissioners and neutering the entire FEC for unspecified election integrity reasons true, or is that just lies and the face of rising corruption and tyranny in America under Trump and MAGA elites?

Q2: Is it the job of the MSM to connect the dots for us, or is there some moral, rational or other justification to not do that, while sitting on the sidelines and sticking with Switzerland-style neutrality?

Info sources:

In sweeping attack on elections, Trump fires leadership of key federal voting assistance commission

Trump Administration Fires Members of Independent Election Group — “The firings and a resignation render the Election Assistance Commission useless. The moves come as President Trump seeks to impose control over how ballots will be counted in the midterms.”

As of Thursday, the FEC Can’t Enforce Campaign Finance Laws — and That’s Only One of Its Problems

Dismantling of federal efforts to monitor election interference creates opening for foreign meddling

Trump fires Election Assistance Commission members ahead of midterms

The Media and the Ballot Box: Confronting 21st Century Voter Suppression

US Democracy Is in Danger and Mainstream Media Is Silent

U.S. Corporate Media Fails to Call Out GOP Voter Suppression Campaign

Why Do Mainstream Media Sugarcoat Trump’s Attacks on Democracy?

What the Media Missed

What The Mainstream Media Got Wrong About The 2024 Election

About the Democrats and their messes

With Graham Plattner's crash & burn flameout in Maine, the Dems take another hit. What a colossal mess. But MAGA propagandists are ecstatic. MAGA media is using Platner’s implosion to argue that Democrats and the radical left are morally bankrupt hypocrites who protect their own predators and Nazis with tattoos while pretending to be the party of women, decency, and anti‑racism. MAGA’s demagoguery is framed as proof that liberal criticism of Trump, Kavanaugh, Gaetz, etc. was just cynical power politics, not principled opposition.

The gatekeeper function failed

Well, sometimes a big flameout happens when a party throws its support to a candidate the party did not properly vet. I recall the same thing happening in San Diego years ago when the Dem Party supported Dem congressman and sex predator Bob Filner for mayor. He got elected and then had to resign over sex scandals that went on for years. What a colossal mess. Apparently the Dems are either just too damned stupid or too damned incompetent to learn from their messes. Arguably too damned arrogant too.

I know, I know, the people should choose, not the party. I get it. But do most voters do serious opposition research on candidates? Hell no they don't. They can't. The bad stuff people need to know is hidden as much as possible. Did most Trump voters know he was a failure as a businessman because he was forced to file for bankruptcy 5 or 6 times? No. Most probably still don't know that. The ones that have heard that fact either say it's either a big fat lie or no big deal if it is true.

Where gatekeeping matters

It's useful to know that the two parties are very different about sex scandals. The Dems usually sacrifice their own . . . . . eventually. We all remember Eric Swalwell's recent flameout in California. 

A NYT article (not paywalled), Does a Sex Assault Claim Kill a Political Career? It Depends., points out the huge difference. Dems sacrifice their sex scandal perps, but the Repubs usually defend theirs and lie and deny their bad guys did anything wrong. Trump is the poster boy for sleazy sex scandals that most Repubs forgive and/or forget. Their bad sex stuff tends to be denied or downplayed. Trump won in 2016 after the accusations of at least a half-dozen women who said he groped or forcibly kissed them. He denied every one allegation. And, he then denied all sexual improprieties alleged against Brett Kavanaugh, RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth. A vast majority of his party did the same. Each accused Republican sleazebag denied the accusations and got rewarded with real power.

And, the Epstein files. Epstein files, Epstein files, Epstein files, . . . . . . 

Messaging matters too

A NYT editorial board opinion (not paywalled), The Democrats Can’t Go On Like This, raises a common criticism about the Dem Party: "Democrats do need fresh, charismatic, younger contenders, and they should stop treating the next name in line as an entitlement. .... What is the party’s answer on immigration, moving beyond its proper outrage at President Trump’s methods to include an affirmative account of who should be allowed in and how? What would it do about the cost of housing, beyond lamenting it and suggesting inadequate fixes? What does it want from the public education system?"

In other words, the editors are arguing that Dem messaging sucks. Well, duh. That has been true and obvious for years. 

Apparently, the Dem party correctly thinks that Washington is broken, but incorrectly believes that nothing can be done. Why stage a fight over specifics that will exposes divisions? But that's backward. Democrats still believe government can work. They just haven't yet clearly and concretely articulated exactly what they would try to do. Vagueness in messaging to say doesn’t make the Dems look unified. It makes it look as if they have nothing to say. They surrender policy debate to authoritarian MAGA propaganda.

The NYT editors argue that Platner’s appeal was that he seemed to stand for something. Maybe he did. He was angry on voters’ behalf about an economy that is rigged for the powerful. He was blunt about saying so. Voters in Maine responded to that. Now he's gone, and the idiot dinosaur Susan Collins will be very likely re-elected for another 6 years of incompetence and support for MAGA tyranny and corruption. 

What a mess.

Update: Trump's 2026 election rigging efforts

He believes it was stolen without 

a shred of evidence

Trump’s 2026 midterm strategy is not just about campaigning harder; it is about structurally rigging the electorate by a federalized crackdown on voting access. The main weapons he is using are (1) demagoguery and lies, (2) the SAVE America Act, and (3) various hardball threats centered on the “election integrity” smokescreen. He promises Republicans in congress that they ‘will not lose an election for 100 years’ if they do what he says.

One of the things he wants the Senate to do is to get rid of the filibuster. That would give MAGA kleptocratic authoritarianism complete control over congress. One of his lies is that there is a grave radical left communist threat that requires to do what he tells them to do. Another of his lies is that extreme measures are needed to stop massive voter fraud, despite Trump and MAGA propagandists not showing one shred of evidence.

Obviously Trump is a dictator-kleptocrat. He clearly doesn’t believe in democracy, two-party rule or voting rights for citizens.

Some think it was rigged, but there still is not a shred of evidence of widespread fraud or cheating

The SAVE America Act Attack

Trump says that the SAVE America Act is his No. 1 priority for 2026. He has repeatedly pressured House MAGA politicians to pass it. To ram it through the Senate, he is demanding the Senate kill the filibuster. The current version of the bill is an amped‑up successor to an earlier version of the SAVE Act. The current proposed bill requires require documentary proof of citizenship to register, typically a passport or birth certificate plus photo ID. It also imposes strict photo ID requirements nationwide for all federal voting.

Every voter is affected. Mail‑only registrations are eliminated, in‑person and mail voters must clear ID checks, and states must aggressively scrub voter rolls of supposed non‑citizens using a revamped national database that has already mistakenly booted eligible US citizen voters off the rolls.

Disenfranchisement by design, not accident

Voting‑rights groups and election scholars make clear that the SAVE America Act will disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, disproportionately low‑income, young, Black, Latino, naturalized citizens, and older voters without ready access to underlying documents. Passports are held by a minority of Americans, birth certificates can be costly or difficult to retrieve, and name‑mismatch rules routinely entangle women and naturalized voters.

MAGA propaganda justifies radical authoritarian election rigging for “election integrity” based on lies and exaggerations about “crooked” and “communist” elections. Other than Trump’s election fraud efforts, there continues to be no evidence of meaningful non‑citizen voting or mass fraud anywhere in US elections. Trump simply promises Republicans that if they end the filibuster and pass the bill, they will not lose an election for 100 years. That is a candid statement of authoritarian partisan intent. It is not a neutral or valid concern for “election integrity.”

Threats & coercion of states

Even if the SAVE America Act stalls in the Senate, Trump and House Republicans are already building a pressure system around it: tying similar requirements to Help America Vote Act funding, threatening states that decline to share voter data with the feds, and exploring reconciliation to jam through key pieces like national ID standards and roll‑purge incentives. Trump has also leaned on states and local officials with investigations and prosecutions premised on vanishingly rare non‑citizen voting. That is to scare and chill administrators who resist Trump’s election-rigging demands. The MAGA lie cynically marketed as “election security” is in fact a multi‑front attempt to hard‑wire authoritarian advantages in voting rules before voters ever see a ballot.

Q: Are Trump and allied MAGA politicians sincere about election integrity, or is this a propaganda smokescreen to help MAGA authoritarians rig elections so that Dems cannot win power for 100 years?

Info sources:

Trump Promises Republicans They ‘Will Not Lose An Election for 100 Years’ If They Do What He Says — “America will never be a communist country. We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms, if we are foolish, stupid and unwise”.

Trump moves to use the levers of presidential power to help his party in the 2026 midterms

The SAVE Act Would Rig Our Elections

Trump is obsessed with passing the SAVE America Act. Here’s what it would actually do.

A Republican plan to overhaul voting is back. Here’s what’s new in the bill

Trump administration threatens Oregon elections leaders with criminal prosecution over noncitizens voting

House passes GOP elections overhaul — The SAVE America Act faces a filibuster roadblock in the Senate even as conservatives seek out workarounds.

SAVE Act voter ID bill is on the minds of Trump and Congress: What to know

These House GOP election proposals could end up in a reconciliation bill — (MAGA politicians in congress are trying to figure a way to avoid the filibuster to get the SAVE Act passed)