Rigged

Donald Trump is preparing a prime-time address about election security, voting machines and what he promises will be “really, really big news.” Apparently, the president has finally uncovered the sinister Democratic plot to rig American elections so effectively that Republicans control the White House, Congress and nearly every lever of power in Washington.

Diabolical.

If Democrats are secretly manipulating voting machines, they may want to request a refund. Their operation has produced the peculiar result of repeatedly electing Republicans, handing Trump two presidential victories and leaving the alleged masterminds of the conspiracy standing outside the halls of power wondering where their rigging went wrong. This is less Ocean’s Eleven than a crew of bank robbers accidentally depositing the money into their victim’s account.

Trump’s election claims have always operated according to a simple rule: An election is legitimate when he wins and corrupt when he loses. Mail ballots are dangerous unless Republicans use them. Voting machines are suspicious unless they tally votes in his favor. State officials are heroes when they certify his victories and traitors when they refuse to manufacture one. The evidence changes. The conclusion never does.

Now the administration is apparently searching through intelligence files, old investigations and even voting machines hauled in from Puerto Rico, hoping to find something—anything—that can be arranged into the shape of vindication. This is not an investigation following evidence. It is a conclusion sending federal employees into the basement to look for props.

And the timing is difficult to miss. The speech comes only months before the midterms, as Trump renews attacks on mail voting and noncitizen voting while using the federal government to reshape election procedures. Presidents confident in their popularity generally campaign on their accomplishments. Presidents worried about the verdict begin questioning the jury before deliberations start.

Perhaps Thursday’s announcement will finally reveal the grand Democratic conspiracy. Perhaps Trump will explain how a party capable of secretly controlling millions of ballots somehow forgot to award itself control of the government. Perhaps the voting machines are programmed by Democrats but possess a stubborn independent streak.

Or perhaps this is what it has always been: advance preparation for any result Trump dislikes.

The greatest threat to confidence in American elections is not a voting machine in Puerto Rico, a mail ballot in Pennsylvania or an undocumented immigrant casting an imaginary vote. It is a president who tells Americans the system is fraudulent whenever it fails to flatter him.

Without free and fair elections, Trump says, “you don’t have a country.”

On that narrow point, he is correct, which is why a president should stop trying to destroy public faith in them.