Three scary things are happening at once
They all lead to Trump seizing more power, and VA-05's congressman is right there with him.
Donald Trump has been floating the idea of trying to take over the 2026 midterms from states run by Democrats, sending armed guards to polling stations, or outright canceling the election.
What if the attack on Iran is laying the foundation he needs to do it?
I’m not suggesting that this is why he’s bombing Iran. Distracting attention from the Epstein scandal is the plausible explanation there. Nor am I saying that Trump actively wants Americans to be attacked.
But three things are clearly true: The war gives Iran more reasons than ever to kill Americans. Trump has made it harder to prevent these attacks. And he’s looking for ways to exploit the results.
John McGuire has been silent about all of it.
Let’s break it down:
Trump is giving Iran more reasons to kill Americans.
The ayatollah is a spiritual leader for tens of millions of Shiites, the vast majority of whom are peaceful—but his death gives the few murderous extremists even more reason to take revenge. (As of this writing, it’s too early to know for sure what motivated the attacks that have happened since the bombing started.)
Trump had no succession plan for Iran, and the newly chosen ayatollah is even more hard-line and implacable than his father was. He’s unlikely to continue the fatwa against pursuing nuclear weapons that his father issued and now has reason to avenge the death of his father and attacks on his country.
The threat will not decrease anytime soon. In 2024, a man named Asif Merchant tried to hire hitmen to assassinate U.S. officials to avenge the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, which had happened four years earlier.
Trump is making it harder to prevent attacks.
In late February, the FBI fired a dozen agents and staff responsible for monitoring threats from Iran. They had extensive experience developing sources and knowledge about its plans. The stated reason was that they had investigated Trump and Kash Patel during the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
These firings were part of a larger exodus of some 300 national security experts from throughout the FBI under Trump.
The attorney general disbanded a group at the FBI specifically tasked with countering influence on our elections from China, Russia—and Iran. Under this administration, the number of surveillance warrants issued for counterterrorism has fallen by half.
U.S. Cyber Command hasn’t had a permanent leader since last year.
The State Department shut down two groups responsible for countering violent extremism last year. Homeland Security has cut more than a third of the staff who worked on violence prevention.
There are credible allegations that the White House blocked reports from the FBI about the threat of attacks in the U.S. after the war started.
Trump is planning to use attacks as an excuse to seize more power.
Nine days before the war started, Heather Honey—the senior Homeland Security official in charge of election integrity—attended a summit on why Trump should declare a national emergency on voting.
An executive order declaring that emergency has already been drafted. With it, Trump would try to take unprecedented power over elections, supposedly to protect them from foreign interference.
There’s some precedent for the idea. After the 9/11 attacks, Trump’s old friend and attorney Rudy Giliuani proposed canceling New York’s mayoral election.
Trump has been tying the Iran war to election interference from the moment he started it.
Where is our congressman in all this?
“I want you and your family to be able to live, work, and raise a family in peace.”—John McGuire
McGuire serves on the Oversight and Armed Services committees in the House. From his perch on Oversight, he has grilled Tim Walz about welfare fraud in Minnesota and Bill and Hillary Clinton about their ties to Epstein.
He has not, however, asked any questions about why the administration gutted so much of its counterterrorism expertise, why the president has any business trying to wrest control of elections from the states, or why the administration walked away from Iran’s offer to stop accumulating nuclear materials.
Even though he’s a freshman congressman, McGuire could demand a hearing on any of these issues. His failure to do so is cowardly and despiccable, and it’s putting American lives at risk.