Trump gives away his election game plan with attack on Pennsylvania governor: analysis

Donald Trump attacked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for expanding automatic voter registration in his state – and that suggests he intends to limit access to the polls to regain power, according to an analysis.

The former president hailed a decision by Wisconsin's conservative Supreme Court that forbid the state from allowing drop boxes, which Trump believes give an advantage to Democrats, and he complained that Shapiro's decision would hurt the chances of Republicans like himself to win in Pennsylvania -- but notably did not say it would increase the chances of fraud, reported the Washington Post.

"It’s worth ruminating on that for a second," wrote Post columnist Philip Bump. "Trump is simply stating that increasing the number of registered voters will be bad for his party. He and his allies will unquestionably interlace some post-hoc claims about the threat of fraud, claims that Trump has done more than anyone to both amplify and expose as unfounded. But he didn’t make that claim on Monday morning. He just complained that having more voters would mean more Democratic victories."

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That isn't necessarily true, Bump wrote, but his attack meshed with his approach to elections in general, and aligned with Republican efforts to limit voting to older and wealthier Americans who are more likely to vote for GOP candidates.

"The argument is fundamentally anti-democratic: Having more people weigh in on candidates reduces our party’s power and therefore should not be allowed," Bump wrote. "Republicans have spent decades hyping the idea that voter fraud is common (which it isn’t) because raising the idea of stealing votes is a more palatable way of opposing expansions to voting than simply saying they want to disadvantage Democrats."