Trump's Idea of No Elections
Allison Silberberg's Plain Talk
By Allison Silberberg
August 19, 2025
Let’s speak truth to power.
After the diplomatic meeting between President Trump and Russian President Putin, its outcome was in question. Trump had set a high bar and then lowered the bar. In the past day or so, Trump has made statements indicating his position sides with Putin to cede Ukrainian land to Russia. Not a big surprise, given his other comments, but a treacherous position.
Then yesterday, Trump met with President Zelensky of Ukraine in the Oval Office. This was just prior to their meeting with European leaders, all in an effort to find a path to peace in Ukraine. Such an endeavor is a noble one but it has to work for the Ukrainians who are the victims here.
Lest we forget, Putin invaded Ukraine in late February of 2022. It is a war that has been extremely bloody and destructive over the past three and a half years. An unnecessary war.
Now, one of the ideas on the table is asking Putin for security guarantees against future invasions from Russia. Some of the European leaders stated yesterday that that is what they seek. But a security guarantee from Putin is laughable at best. It would be like putting Bob Haldeman in charge of an Ethics Commission. Not really believable.
Trump has been stating that Ukraine should look at ceding land to Putin in order to get peace. Putin is even negotiating for land he has not conquered. That is chutzpah. We all want peace but this won’t work even if Ukraine agreed to it. Putin will regroup and attack for more. He is a dictator and his word is not his bond; his word is worthless. He hasn’t honored other agreements.
Yesterday afternoon, as Trump and Zelensky sat in two high back chairs in front of the dormant fireplace in the now gilded Oval Office with a packed room full of senior staff and the press corps, Putin pummeled cities in Ukraine with bombs. Zelensky referenced this in his remarks and stated that a child was killed that morning in Kharkiv from a bomb that Putin’s forces had dropped.
While I watched the live coverage of the meeting in the Oval Office, the two leaders made an initial statement, seemingly off the cuff, and Zelensky presented a sealed envelope that contained a personal letter from his wife to First Lady Melania Trump. Trump took the envelope and thanked Zelensky. It was a nice touch in personal diplomacy. All very civilized.
Then Trump took questions from the press pool, and it seemed to me that all of the questions were directed at Trump.
After a few questions, one reporter said something about liking that Zelensky was wearing a suit. He was saying that sarcastically, given how Zelensky always wears his military garb and last time in February was chastised by some for not wearing a suit to the Oval Office for a meeting with Trump. At the meeting yesterday, he was wearing a suit. Zelensky had a witty response, to which everyone chuckled, including Zelensky and Trump. It was a jovial and friendly moment, especially given what had transpired in February with the harsh words and the difficult task now at hand.
Then the same reporter asked Zelensky a question. When I heard it live, I knew I wanted to find a video and watch that exchange again in order to catch for sure what was said more closely. I found a recording of the meeting so that I could write down exactly what was said. Here is that exchange.
The reporter asked Zelensky, “Upon peace, God willing you get peace, are you open to holding an election in your country?” The room was now silent. All eyes, including Trump’s, turned to Zelensky.
Zelensky responded right away, “Yes, of course. We are open to elections. Yes. We have to do safety circumstances and a little bit, we need to work in the Parliament because during the war, you can’t have elections, but we can, we can do security. We need maybe, how to say, we need a truce, yes, everywhere, on the battlefield, in the sky and the sea to make possible for people to do democratic, open, legal, legal elections.”
Trump responded immediately, “So you’re saying during, during the war, you can’t have elections. So let me just say three and a half years from now, so you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections. Oh that’s good.” At this point, Trump is grinning.
And then the questioning shifted, and they soon moved on to the meeting with the European leaders.
But what can we make of Trump’s comment? It was plain as day. Trump stated in plain English a threat to our republic and our democratic values. It is unfathomable.
Trump is implying that if the U.S. is at war, then there won’t be elections in 2028.
Even if our nation is “in a war with somebody,” we can still hold elections. After all, we did so throughout World War II, and we did throughout the Civil War. Trump’s comment is dangerous.
In an eerie precursor to his remark, Trump as a presidential candidate last summer and fall repeatedly said to massive campaign crowds, “In four years, you don't have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good. You're not going to have to vote.” At the time, I wondered what that meant. Perhaps we now know.
This is on top of what he had posted on social media the night before the Zelensky meeting and yesterday morning in which he stated that he wanted to get rid of mail-in ballots and change how the country votes. Millions of Americans depend now on being able to vote by mail. And Trump as president has no right to dictate how our elections are conducted. The election rules are not within the president’s authority.
The New Republic has a story today about the mail-in ballots and how Trump is already creating an atmosphere of distrust and accusations of malfeasance about the midterms in 2026 and the general election in 2028. Of course, he is. Here we go again, similar to the unfounded accusations regarding the presidential election in 2020, which he clearly lost. So Trump agrees with the outcome of an election only if he or his side wins. How is that democratic?
We are in the beginning or in the midst of a bloodless coup. This is how fascism starts. It has started. We will all need to brace ourselves, stay alert, speak out, and stand up.
People keep asking about the need for Democrats to stand up. Some Democrats are speaking out, but it isn’t resonating yet as words finally did against Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. But that took years before the nation shifted back to a semblance of normalcy. Ironically, the right-hand top aide of McCarthy was a conniving, young man named Roy Cohn, who years later became close friends with Donald Trump and mentored him. In many ways, the current times and Trump’s rhetoric and edicts are reminiscent of the Red Scare of the 1950s.
I urge all of us to listen to Trump’s offhand and scripted remarks because he is hinting clearly at his real plans as president, even if that means no elections.
Allison Silberberg is a writer and public affairs/public policy consultant. She served as mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, 2016-2019. Her work includes working on staff on Capitol Hill for Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen (D-TX). She is the author of “Visionaries In Our Midst: Ordinary People who are Changing our World,” which hit #1 on Amazon’s List for Philanthropy & Charity. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, on PBS.org. To learn more, please visit: www.allisonsilberberg.com
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