Trump Is Getting Tired of Losing Election Cases

Earlier this year, President Trump claimed a new area of expertise: election law. “I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject,” Trump wrote on social media, and found an “irrefutable one” that he would soon present. He suggested that it would allow him to bypass Congress and gain approval from the courts to impose his will on the nation’s locally run election system, including requiring voters to show identification while casting ballots in the upcoming midterms.

It was a heady time for a man who obsesses over voting policy and is seeking to prove that the 2020 election was stolen out from under him. Two weeks before Trump claimed in his February 13 post to have broken new legal ground, the FBI had conducted a raid of an election warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia. Officials made off with more than 650 boxes of ballots as part of a criminal investigation stemming from Trump’s 2020 defeat, an unprecedented action that the president hailed as a major advance for his unsubstantiated claim that the contest was riddled with fraud. The House of Representatives had just passed the SAVE America Act, a bill that would force people to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and to show photo identification when casting a ballot.

Read: A serious debate about an unserious bill

Now a sense of gloom has replaced the hope that Trump and his allies had when they thought they were on the verge of making good on his election promises, which also included eliminating most voting by mail and conducting mass purges of voter rolls. The SAVE America Act is doomed to fail in Congress, and Trump is at war with his own party over it. Nothing, so far, has come of the Fulton County case. And the president’s legal arguments are a lot more refutable than he claimed. Trump is consistently being rebuffed in court; the Justice Department has lost at least a dozen election lawsuits. Some changes to the election system that Trump laid out in a March executive order have been blocked by judges. The president is running out of time and low on options to change the country’s voting policies—which he has denigrated as “rigged” and reminiscent of developing nations’—because the courts, Congress, and the Constitution seem to keep getting in the way.

District-level judges have, over the past two weeks, ruled against Trump’s most significant executive orders on voting, blocked efforts by his administration to compel states to hand their voter rolls over to the Justice Department, and outlawed the Department of Homeland Security’s modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system. The administration has expanded the SAVE database, which previously focused on noncitizens, by adding Social Security records and other data from native-born Americans to conduct checks of people’s voter eligibility. A judge said that the expanded system “knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote.” Other judges are undercutting Trump’s assertion that he can remake the election system—which is administered by state and local officials—as he sees fit.

“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani wrote in blocking much of Trump’s March executive order that aimed to give the U.S. Postal Service new authority to determine which Americans could vote by mail. She underlined the words does not for extra emphasis.

The administration’s “efforts have been rebuked by every court to consider them,” Cathy Bissoon, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania, wrote in a ruling that blocked the Department of Justice’s push to obtain voter data from the state. Bissoon noted that 10 courts had already blocked similar efforts in other states, before punctuating her comments with a footnote: “The administration’s demands have yielded one unexpected benefit, namely, bipartisan agreement. Five of the district judges are Trump appointees.”

They include U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher, whom Trump nominated to the bench in 2019. She dismissed a DOJ lawsuit against Maryland seeking its voting records. “The Court joins every court to have addressed this issue,” Gallagher wrote in determining that an unredacted voter file is not something a state is compelled to give to the federal government. Trump has also lost in the Supreme Court that he helped reshape: Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote on Monday that states could allow mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, essentially dismissing the president’s argument that such late-arriving votes fuel fraud and distrust.

David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, told reporters on Monday that the Trump administration’s cold streak is remarkable. “It is losing literally every single case it’s involved in,” Becker said. “I was a former voting section attorney in the DOJ, and I can’t remember the DOJ or any administration losing more than one or two trial-court cases a year, at the most. We are well into the double digits with this administration, and the year is not even half over yet.”

A Justice Department spokesperson told me that the Trump administration is “devoting significant resources” to continue the legal battle, including through its “litigation to ensure voter roll maintenance and a clear focus on ensuring that American elections are decided solely by American citizens.”

Publicly, the White House is shrugging off the legal setbacks. “President Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, told me in a statement, asserting that existing laws give the Justice Department what it needs to compel states to maintain clean voter rolls. “This campaign pledge from the President is why millions of Americans sent him back to the White House.”

But the president has done little to hide his frustration over his inability to make good on that pledge. The stalled SAVE America Act has led to shouting matches and standoffs over strategy with Republican lawmakers, leaving Congress in a legislative quagmire. And this year’s losing streak is a continuation of the president’s dismal record in the courts when it comes to voting cases. After Trump’s 2020-election loss, the president and his allies filed dozens of lawsuits in an effort to overturn the results. In the end, they lost almost every case. A Washington Post review of court cases a month after Joe Biden’s victory found that 86 judges had ruled against Trump or his supporters.

This is not to say that Trump has not had success influencing America’s electoral system, particularly in the past year. The president has elevated MAGA-friendly election deniers into the federal government, sicced the Justice Department on his political enemies, and drafted multiple agencies into his relentless hunt to substantiate his broad claims of voter fraud. The Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling in April gutted the Voting Rights Act and cleared the way for several Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps and eliminate Democrat-leaning districts with large portions of minority voters. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rolled back campaign-finance restrictions on political parties, which Trump hailed as “A BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS.” At the state level, pro-Trump lawmakers have implemented miniature versions of the SAVE America Act or found other ways to support the president’s vision for voting. At least 10 states have voluntarily turned over the personal information of millions of voters to the Justice Department.

Read: The election deniers are winning

“They’re trying to appease Trump in these ways and implement his will in the states,” Gréta Bedekovics, the former director of democracy at the Center for American Progress, told me. In a report released Monday, Bedekovics and her co-author, Devon Ombres, found that at least 12 states have passed laws requiring documentary proof of citizenship for people registering to vote or mandating citizenship-verification checks for voters since 2024.

The setbacks that Trump has faced in court and Congress increase the likelihood that the midterm elections will proceed as election officials have intended, even though the president has, with little evidence, continued to denigrate the system as rife with fraud. On Monday, he lamented the “tremendous loss in the Supreme Court” on late-arriving mail-in ballots and said “it is more important than ever to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.”

The president’s growing desperation over election policy has begun to bleed into other parts of his agenda. Last month, he abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing bill, suggesting that it was a “yawn” compared with legislation on elections. He has likewise encouraged Congress to block other bills, including national-security legislation, if the SAVE America Act—which Trump has deemed a “National Emergency”—is not attached. Congress left town this week mired in disagreement over how to balance the president’s election obsession with other pressing priorities, including the annual defense-spending bill.

Time is running out. Judges generally frown on any major actions to change voting laws in the weeks before an election. Early voting for the midterms will begin as soon as September in some states.

With Congress gridlocked and the courts repeatedly brushing back Trump, there is growing fear among election officials that the president may try to influence election policy in unprecedented ways, such as seizing voting machines—something Trump has said he regrets having not ordered the National Guard to do in 2020—and deploying federal agents to polling places.

The courts have proved to be a solid bulwark against Trump’s push to disrupt the midterm elections. But the president is nothing if not persistent when it comes to trying to bend the rules in his favor. As a result, the sanctity of the vote could rely on whether other government institutions and, ultimately, the citizenry can also mount a stand against the president’s worst impulses.

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Jadarian Price ‘A Special Player,’ Ty Okada’s Big Play & Other Observations From The Seahawks’ Joint Practice With The Titans

NASHVILLE—For the third straight year under head coach Mike Macdonald, the Seahawks hit the road for a joint practice, taking the field with the Titans on Friday for the second session of joint practice in the past three years with Tennessee.

“Going into today, our goal was to get great work; I think we accomplished that goal,” Macdonald said. “It’s an awesome opportunity to have a pretty heavy practice in this heat and humidity—I think they said it’s a little bit cooler than it’s been here, which is kind of crazy—so we had some guys down with some cramps and things like that, but overall, a great work day.”

In addition to some unfortunate injury news regarding receiver Jake Bobo, here are six observations from Friday’s practice:

1. After missing a bit of camp with an injury, Jadarian Price is back and showing that he’s “a really special player.’

Jadarian Price, Seattle’s first-round pick in this year’s draft, missed a bit of camp due to what Macdonald described as upper-leg soreness, has been back on the field throughout the past week following the team’s preseason opener, and on Friday, the rookie back put on display some of what has the Seahawks so excited about his game.

Price had a nice over-the-shoulder catch for a big gain early in practice in a seven-on-seven drill, then later in 11-on-11, he broke off a big run, taking a run through a nice hole up the middle before bouncing the run outside to get to the sideline.

“He’s a special player,” said quarterback Sam Darnold. “He’s a really special player. He brings a different facet to the offense that only a guy like him can bring. Whether it’s catching passes out of the backfield, catching screens, running in between the tackles, outside of the tackles, he can really do it all. And I know he’s just going to continue to get better and learn.”

Price had multiple catches in the practice, and was one of several running backs showing up in the passing game, including Velus Jones Jr., who had multiple catches, including a touchdown from Jalen Milroe, and George Holani, who had a touchdown reception in a red zone drill, getting open on a wheel route out of the backfield before making an over-the-shoulder catch on a well-placed pass from Darnold.

“They’re doing a great job out of the backfield,” Darnold said of the running backs’ pass-catching ability. “Even when they’re not out of the backfield, in the slot, being able to catch and do all the things we ask them to do. Obviously in camp, things happen, receivers go down, tight ends go down, fullbacks go down, and those running backs have been able to just step up in whatever position we ask them to play. They’ve been very versatile all camp, and really, really good catching the ball out of the backfield or even in the slot or out wide.”

2. Ty Okada had the play of the day on defense with a pick six.

Safety Ty Okada had the play of the day on the defensive side of the ball in Friday’s practice with a pick six of Titans quarterback Cam Ward. On a ball that was intended for receiver Carnell Tate, the interception was thanks to a good read by Okada.

“I was coming down over the middle, tried to get him to get his eyes off of me and then on a crossing route was just able to read it and play off of him and go out there and make a play,” Okada said.

After Okada heard the play call, he knew that he had a chance to go and make a play.

“We’re able to give the quarterback a different read and a different look on that play, so it was a great call by Coach Mike (Macdonald),” Okada said. “I was just able to take advantage of it, which was nice.”

This play was another example of how he was able to earn a starting role last season, in place of injured players.

“It’s me versus me every single day,” he said. “I want every single DB in the DB room in Seattle to be the best versions of themselves day in and day out. And if we all do that, we’re going to continue to grow as a group and that’s only going to further help the defense and the team. And so ultimately, it’s just me looking in the mirror and trying to grow any way that I can on and off the field.”

3. Practice did get a little chippy for a few brief moments, but for the most part both teams handled themselves well.

As is the case for a lot of joint practices, the play on the field did get a little chippy at times, but it was nothing too serious and Macdonald said he thought the Seahawks handled it “really well today” and there was a lot of value for the starters in Friday’s practice.

“There’s going to be some excess energy at some point, but it’s how well you kind of collect yourself, take a deep breath and get to the next play,” he said. “So our guys knew that it was really important for us today to get great work in. And so that was really our focus. And I think we hit that target for the most part, which is great. And we got a lot of reps in. If you play starters in a preseason game, you’re looking at maybe upwards of 20 reps, but now you’re getting upwards of 40 or 50 really good physical reps, but in a more controlled environment, which is a positive for everybody. But you got to nail the execution. It takes both clubs to work together. It takes both teams to work together. There’s a lot of logistics involved. And so that’s why I think why I’m so pleased is just it took everybody kind of pushing in the same direction to get it done today.”

There was talk amongst players and messaging from coaches about making the most of the practice.

“There were some reminders,” Okada said. “But it was more just about ‘Hey this is important work and we need these reps, we can’t waste time.’ It was good that it didn’t go to where it needed to go.”

Jones added, “We didn’t come here to fight, man. I’ve been telling guys, we came here to work, man. We want good work. We want to see where we’re at, see where our defense is at, see where our offense is at.”

4. Rashid Shaheed showed some serious toughness.

Literally every day of camp could have an observation about Jaxon Smith-Njigba being basically impossible to defend, and that was true again Friday, with Smith-Njigba making several nice catches, including an over-the-shoulder catch on a deep ball from Sam Darnold, but plenty of other receivers also deserve having the spotlight on the work they’re doing in camp, including Rashid Shaheed.

Shaheed had a number of catches to continue what has been a strong camp, but one thing he put on display Friday that he hasn’t been able to in practice—because Seahawks players take care of their teammates in practice—is some serious toughness.

Attempting to make a catch over the middle, Shaheed was blasted by Titans cornerback Alontae Taylor, who lowered his helmet before leaving his feet to deliver a hard blow to Shaheed’s chest. Shaheed stayed down for a few moments in obvious pain, but was quickly back in action. Shaheed made a nice catch on the sideline a few plays later for a first down, then held the ball up before dropping it at the feet of Titans players on their sideline.

“I would like to not put a receiver in a situation like that, but I also would have thought the DB wouldn’t have hit him,” Darnold said.

Darnold said Shaheed told him, while still on the ground, that he got the wind knocked out of him, and which point Darnold could relax a bit, saying, “All right, you’re good.”

“When he confirmed that, I felt a lot better,” Darnold said. “Not that I want to continue to do that, but he showed a lot of toughness.”

A few plays later, Velus Jones Jr., perhaps remembering the hard hit his teammate had received moments earlier, took a run to the left sideline, turned the corner, then lowered his shoulder and to level safety Jerrick Reed II with a blow that knocked the former Seahawk clear off of his feet and sent him tumbling over backwards.

5. Mike Macdonald thought there were some good and not so good things about how the defense practiced.

While the Seahawks had some good plays like the aforementioned Okada pick-six, or a Josh Jobe pass breakup in the endzone they also had plays they probably wished they could have back, like a Titans touchdown during the two-minute drill. And Macdonald emphasized that, that was all a part of the process.

“I think we’re going to watch the tape and like a lot of things we saw, and then we’re going to watch the tape and not like some things,” he said. “It’s kind of par for the course, but I think it’s a great opportunity. You’re going against a different operation, different run schemes, different pass game, play our rules out, just kind of go play ball. And so there’s some things that are off the top of my head that are not above the line, which we’ll attack those and get those things figured out. But overall, I thought it was a good day.”

Linebacker Ernest Jones IV said he likes the joint practices because it’s not often he’s playing in a live game during the preseason, so playing against another offense are good reps for him, but he knows they could have been better.

“I think we played pretty well,” he said. “Our standard is perfection, so we’re not happy. We gave them some things and then some things that we just got to correct. But overall, I think for the ones, got a lot of plays in, got a lot of good work, so we should kind of go into the games feeling good.”

He added, “When I say perfection, we don’t want you to get a yard. We don’t want none of that. And when you do get that, it pisses us off. So that’s just where my frustration is. And I don’t want them to get nothing. I want it to be no Bueno, no good for them. And that’s what we want as a defense. And like you said, they’re in the NFL for a reason. They’re going to make plays. They’re going to find the soft parts in our coverage.”

6. Second-year tight end Elijah Arroyo continues to be a matchup problem for opponents.

Almost as soon as Friday’s practice transitioned from warmups and position drills, second-year tight end Elijah Arroyo had one of the earliest highlights of the day, getting behind the defense for a long completion from Drew Lock. Arroyo, a second-round pick in last year’s draft, had several other catches throughout practice, including a touchdown from Darnold in a red-zone drill. After a relatively quiet rookie season that included a stint on injured reserve, Arroyo looks poised to be a big part of Seattle’s passing game this year, providing real matchup problems for opponents with his combination of size, speed and route running.

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Lista de convocados del Barcelona para Elche: ¡No viaja Balde!

El Barcelona ofreció este domingo por la mañana la convocatoria para el encuentro de esta noche contra el Elche, a las 21.30 horas, en el Martínez Valero. Hansi Flick tiene las ausencias ya conocidas de Héctor Fort y Casadó, que están buscando una salida en esta recta final de mercado, y de Rodri, que no se ejercitará con el grupo hasta mañana, lunes. Pero, lo más llamativo es la ausencia de Balde, y más tras las palabras de ayer de Flick en las que dio entender que dejaba la puerta abierta al catalán para su salida.

El técnico azulgrana ya insinuó ayer que el defensa podría salir en estos diez días que restan de mercado cuando fue preguntado por esta posibilidad: “Es una cuestión difícil porque tiene una enorme calidad y es importante saber si un jugador está convencido para poder competir en su demarcación”. Ahora, con su ausencia para Elche, las opciones de que Balde siga en el Barça parece reducirse.

El técnico alemán tampoco puede contar con los lesionados De Jong y Roony. Son, a día de hoy, los dos azulgranas que hay en la enfermería culé. Además, para completar la convocatoria, Flick ha citado a cinco futbolistas de la base: Xavi Espart, Pesquer, Fariñas, Cortés, Hamza y Eder Aller.

La plantilla catalana se desplaza este mediodía a Elche y regresará a la Ciudad Condal nada más finalizar el compromiso.

La lista de convocados del Barcelona

Porteros: Joan García, Szczesny y Eder Aller.

Defensas: Cancelo, Cubarsí, Christensen, Gerard Martín, Koundé, Eric García, Xavi Espart, Pesquer, Cortés.

Centrocampistas: Gavi, Fermín, Pedri, Olmo, Bernal, Fariñas.

Delanteros: Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Adeyemi, Gordon, Hamza.

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Scholarship announced in honour of late Miss Jamaica Universe Contestant LaToya Malcolm

Former Miss Universe Contestant LaToya Malcolm (Photo: Miss Universe Jamaica Instagram page)

Member of Parliament and Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce Delano Seiveright has announced the LaToya Malcolm Scholarship for Resilience in memory of the 2024 Miss Bikini Jamaica International titleholder and former Miss Universe Jamaica contestant.

The announcement came amid emotional scenes as the mother, family and friends of Malcolm wept and paid their final respects at her funeral on Saturday. Seiveright, a friend of Malcom, said the scholarship will see two high school students each receiving $100,000 to assist with their educational development.

Malcolm, 35, whose sudden passing in July shocked her family, friends and the wider entertainment and pageant communities, was remembered during the deeply emotional service as an exceptionally kind, loving and good-hearted young woman.

News of her passing also attracted international media attention, including coverage by major US entertainment outlet TMZ, reflecting the reach she had achieved beyond Jamaica.

An actress, entertainer and dance instructor with more than a decade of experience in entertainment, Malcolm competed in the 2024 Miss Universe Jamaica competition and later captured the Miss Bikini Jamaica International 2024 crown, also winning Best Figure, Best Legs and Best Condition.

Her pageant success was itself a story of resilience. Malcolm lost her father, Winston, earlier in 2024 but persevered through months of demanding fitness and dance training to capture the title, which she dedicated to his memory.

Tributes at Saturday’s service reflected not only on Malcolm’s accomplishments, but on the person behind them — a loving daughter who relatives and friends remembered for her warmth, kindness, ambition and generous spirit. Her mother, family members and friends were visibly overcome with grief as mourners gathered to celebrate a life cut painfully short.

The LaToya Malcolm Scholarship for Resilience will honour her memory by assisting young people facing challenges while pursuing their education. For this year’s award, two deserving high-school students will each receive $100,000 towards their educational development.

Seiveright said: “LaToya was special, she was loved, and she will not be forgotten. I hope this assistance in her name will give two young people an opportunity to keep pushing forward despite the challenges they may face.”

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