U.S. elections are run by state governments, but President Donald Trump, still brooding over his loss in 2020, says he wants to “nationalize” American elections. And Democrats and other critics see a looming attempt to rig the voting process.

Trump has long falsely claimed he won the 2020 election, and the loss remains a sore spot, said NBC News. His suggested solution is that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting.” But the U.S. Constitution gives states, not the federal government, authority over the “times, places and manner” of federal elections, said USA Today. The president’s proposal is “outlandishly illegal,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the Senate floor.

Electoral power grab?
Trump’s push to nationalize elections is a “radical power grab,” said Steve Benen at MS NOW. Even if his “bonkers conspiracy theories” were somehow true, the Constitution’s requirements make it difficult for Republicans to “simply launch an electoral power-grab at will.” 

Trump has proven willing to test legal limits, however, and has even “floated the idea of canceling future U.S. elections,” said Benen. Americans concerned about voting rights “don’t have the luxury of simply shrugging with indifference at the president’s latest nonsense.”

Democrats are already making plans, said Lauren Egan at The Bulwark. Party leaders expect that the “worse Trump’s polling gets, the more aggressively he will look for ways to interfere with the elections.” The White House is already demanding rolls from states to build a voter database, and Democrats are countering with legal efforts to block federal intrusion. 

Election security
Elected Republicans may not go along with Trump, said The Washington Examiner. “I’m not in favor of federalizing elections,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to reporters. It’s “problematic” to claim that state election officials are “not doing our jobs and the federal government has to do it for us,” said Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson at a conference last week.

Others do see a federal role. “Democracy suffers” when voters lose confidence in election fairness, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at The Wall Street Journal. Congress should require voters to use a Real ID to cast a ballot. Voting rights and election security should not be “competing values.”

Disney will soon have a new boss. Josh D’Amaro has been named the next CEO of The Walt Disney Company, replacing the outgoing Bob Iger. A longtime fixture at the Mouse House, D’Amaro has worked for the organization for nearly three decades and has been instrumental in developing the brand’s theme park expansion. 

Disney beginnings
The path for D’Amaro, 54, has been a lucky one. In 1998, he “applied cold for a strategy job at Disney and got it,” said The New York Times. D’Amaro “spent more than two decades moving through roles across finance, marketing, strategy and operations before he went on to lead both the Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort,” said NBC News. In 2020, he was named chairman of Disney Experiences, which oversees global theme park and resort operations, as well as the cruise line and consumer products.

Steering the ‘beloved IP’
There are several questions looming as D’Amaro prepares to take control, namely how he will “lead one of Hollywood’s most dominant entertainment companies,” said Vulture. Despite having significant experience at the company, he has “never made a show or movie himself,” and many in the industry are wondering where he will “steer the company’s beloved IP.” 

D’Amaro was likely tapped by Disney’s board more for his experience with theme parks than film and TV. His appointment “brings to the fore Disney’s storied history in park-going at a time of massive growth for the division,” said CNBC. The company has committed to investing $60 billion over the next decade in parks, which accounted for 40% of Disney’s total annual revenue last year.

Despite this growth, D’Amaro is also taking over the company at a time of “colossal industry upheaval, from the collapse of traditional TV to the rise of generative artificial intelligence,” said the Times. Still, he seems to be ready for the challenge. The new CEO is known for his “affection for Disney’s distinct brand of wholesome family entertainment.” He “genuinely loves Disney,” said Roy P. Disney, Walt Disney’s grandnephew, to the Times. “And I love him for that.”

Sweden’s Lina Ljungblom scores an equalizer in the first women’s ice hockey match of the Milano Cortina Olympics. Her team beat Germany 4-1 in the preliminary clash ahead of tomorrow’s official opening of the Winter Games.
Sun Wei / AFP / Pool / Getty Images

February might be the shortest month of the year, but it features plenty of days to add books to your 2026 reading list. There’s a category-defying novel, highly awaited follow-up and posthumously published work from a literary icon.

‘Autobiography of Cotton’ 
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cristina Rivera Garza is back with another genre-bending book. It’s set in Estación Camarón, a “cotton farming region in northern Mexico,” said The New York Times. The book is a “fusion of fiction and nonfiction that excavates both national and family history,” said The Wall Street Journal. Her novel is one of “restless movement and passionate hope.” (out now, $17, Graywolf Press)

‘Heap Earth Upon It’
The follow-up to Chloe Michelle Howarth’s “Sunburn” has been pitched by its publisher as a “new take on sapphic obsession for fans of ‘All Our Wives Under the Sea.’” Howarth’s highly anticipated sophomore release is an “engrossing chronicle of restlessness and desire,” said Publishers Weekly. (out now, $21, Penguin Random House)

‘Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon’
This nonfiction collection of some of Toni Morrison’s previously unpublished work is a “compilation of lectures for a class she taught at Princeton University on the American literary canon.” Through her “original, often dazzling close readings,” Morrison shows how the “idea of race has been a primal force in the nation’s literature, shaping, disfiguring and sometimes liberating language and the imagination.” (out now, $32, Penguin Random House)