Falsely insisting President Donald Trump gained the 2020 election is just about a job requirement to serve in his administration. However in case you are a conspiracy-addled hardcore election denier, then you definitely get a job overseeing elections!
In August, Trump invented the place “deputy assistant secretary for election integrity” within the Division of Homeland Safety, and gave it to Heather Honey, who has no skilled background within the federal authorities or election administration. However what she lacks in expertise, she makes up for in true devotion to Trump’s Massive Lie, having pushed mangled election knowledge and misinformation to prop up his conspiracies.
And now we all know what Honey’s tenure will contain, due to The New York Instances.
On a current name with election officers from nearly each state, Honey took up Trump’s acquainted and well-debunked complaints. The decision’s precise election officers, educated and devoted to their occupation, had been little doubt thrilled to have a right-wing kook repeatedly convey up how voting machines had been in some way rigged for Democrats.
Honey additionally advised them that government-employed consultants in combating election misinformation are the actual drawback, and that they’ve “strayed from their mission.”
To be truthful, the present electoral success of Trump and the GOP largely depends on election misinformation, so having a authorities entity devoted to stopping that does pose a little bit of an issue for them.
Supporters loyal to President Donald Trump attend a rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.
The New York Instances additionally obtained its fingers on a recording of Honey chatting with her fellow conspiracy theorists in March, earlier than becoming a member of the administration. Honey mentioned that Trump might declare a “national emergency” based mostly on an “actual investigation” of 2020, and that then “we can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.”
In a short second of reflection, she added, “I don’t know if that’s really feasible and if the people around the president would let him test that theory.”
As if there have been anybody left round Trump that might cease him from doing something.
Honey shouldn’t be the one conspiracy theorist now ready to form American elections. Earlier this month, the White Home employed Kurt Olsen, a “Stop the Steal” lawyer, to be a particular authorities worker tasked with investigating the 2020 election. He additionally plans to weed out anybody disloyal to Trump, due to course.
Olsen is so deep within the denier lore that he served as MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s lawyer for no matter Lindell thinks are election points. Olsen’s devotion to Lindell has not waned, regardless of how arduous Lindell has beclowned himself. This previous summer season, Olsen testified in Lindell’s Colorado defamation trial, the place Lindell was sued by a former worker of Dominion Voting Techniques. He advised the jury, “I would trust Mike with my life,” and that Lindell was “the lone voice keeping the discussion [of election fraud] alive.”
God, think about stanning Mike Lindell within the yr of our Lord 2025.
Enjoyable reality: As a particular authorities worker, Olsen doesn’t must publicly declare his non-public enterprise pursuits for over 100 days—so handy!
Relating to genuinely defending elections, the Trump administration has hollowed all the things out.
Trump reduce funding for the group that offered cybersecurity threat-monitoring and help for state and native authorities election officers. Congress slashed the finances for the Election Help Fee from $55 million in 2024 to $15 million in 2025.
It’s truthful to say that Honey and Olsen are a part of Trump’s whole-of-government strategy to weaken and warp elections in America. From making an attempt to ban mail-in voting to stocking his administration with election deniers, Trump’s obtained all of it.
