President Donald Trump touched on canceling the election while also dismissing the prospect in a wide-ranging speech on Jan. 6.
Speaking to House Republicans at the newly dubbed “Trump-Kennedy Center,” he encouraged the lawmakers to campaign on his priorities to keep control of Congress in the 2026 midterms. He expressed confusion about the poor public opinion of his job performance, saying Republicans have the “right policy.”
Riffing on tariffs during his speech, he said, “if you have the wrong president, nothing’s good.”
“We found that out for four years… They had the worst policy and we have to even run against these people,” he said. “I won’t say ‘cancel the election, they should cancel the election,’ because the fake news will say ‘he wants the elections canceled, he’s a dictator.’ They always call me a dictator.”
Trump says Republicans need to win so he won’t be impeached
Republicans currently hold the majority in both chambers of Congress, though the House’s majority is shrinking with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s departure and unexpected emergencies with other GOP members.
The president’s party often loses in midterm elections, though Trump in his speech rallied to break that trend. His political future depends on it, he said.
“You’ve got to win the midterms,” Trump said. “If we don’t win the midterms, it’s just going to be – they’ll find a reason to impeach me.”
Trump was impeached twice in his first term by House Democrats, and the Senate acquitted him both times.
Who votes in midterm elections?
Every House Representative and a third of Senators will be up for reelection on Nov. 3, 2026, when various local and state elections will also happen. That means any eligible U.S. citizen could vote in the midterm.
Midterm elections usually see lower voter turnout compared to presidential election years. Though 2018, the midterms in Trump’s first term, brought a jump in turnout at 53.4%, according to Census Bureau data. In 2022, the turnout was 52.2%. Compare those to the 2020 presidential election, a record-breaking year, which saw a turnout rate of 66.8%.
Older voters are more likely to turn out in non-presidential years and also more likely to vote Republican, according to Reuters. White voters and college-educated voters made up a larger portion of voters than nonvoters in the 2018 and 2022 midterms, according to Pew Research Center.
Contributing: Bart Jansen, Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X (Twitter), Bluesky and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump floats canceling election, dismisses it to avoid ‘dictator’ label
Reporting by Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY NETWORK / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
