Last year, Trump's top election security adviser explored the possibility of banning voting machines used in more than half of all U.S. states. Kurt Olsen, a White House lawyer charged with substantiating long-discredited claims of election fraud, spearheaded a push to remove Dominion Voting Systems equipment from American elections, Reuters reports.

This effort was part of broader discussions among officials about ways the federal government could wrest control of elections from individual states — a goal Trump himself has publicly advocated.

Olsen's preferred alternative was a nationwide move to hand-counted paper ballots, something Trump has repeatedly called for. However, many election security experts argue that this approach would be less reliable and more error-prone than the current setup, which relies on machines that produce verifiable paper records and is used by nearly every jurisdiction in the country.

The scheme advanced far enough that Commerce Department officials began looking into potential legal justifications for it in September. Ultimately, though, it fell apart — Olsen and his allies were unable to produce the evidence needed to support such a sweeping action.

Despite what Trump and his sycophantic enablers claim, there is no proof that voting machines have ever been hacked. Of course, Trump was fine with Tina Peters' lawless actions after the former Mesa County clerk handed unauthorized access to voting machines, letting people copy sensitive data, and then watched as that stuff got plastered online like it was a viral cat video.

The midterms are going to be lit, and Trump was way ahead of the game by trying to eradicate voting machines. The problem is, they, once again, had no proof of his wild-eyed claims. And Trump will never, ever accept defeat (see 2020 election when Joe Biden curb-stomped him), so expect more to come from this delusional administration before November.