All posts tagged: enact

Trump Doesn’t Have the Power to Enact His Latest Elections Scheme

Trump Doesn’t Have the Power to Enact His Latest Elections Scheme

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Anxiety among election officials and experts had been building for months before Donald Trump issued his latest executive order purporting to ensure election integrity late last month. When the actual text emerged, the reaction wasn’t relief exactly—but a definite sense that things could have been much worse. Americans have many reasons to be worried about whether the midterm elections will be free and fair. As I laid out in a cover story last fall, the president’s plan to subvert the 2026 election is multifaceted and already in swing. But last month’s order and the dismissive reaction it’s received from experts—along with this weekend’s decisive defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which shows how the competitive-authoritarian playbook that Trump has imitated can be beaten—also point to the reasons to resist doomerism. “This is relatively mild stuff, at least compared …

New York Mayor Mamdani vows to enact democratic socialist agenda

New York Mayor Mamdani vows to enact democratic socialist agenda

Zohran Mamdani is sworn in as New York City’s 112th mayor by New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, alongside his wife Rama Duwaji, right, in the former City Hall subway station on January 1, 2026 in New York City. Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images Democrat Zohran Mamdani became New York City’s mayor on Thursday, vowing during a public swearing-in ceremony on the steps of City Hall to enact an aggressive agenda aimed at making the nation’s largest city more affordable for working people. Mamdani, a member of his party’s left-wing democratic socialist faction, was elected in November in a prominent victory that could this year’s midterm elections that will determine control of the U.S. Congress. Some Democrats have embraced his style while Republicans portray him as a foil on the national political stage. The 34-year-old campaigned heavily on cost-of-living issues and was sharply critical of Republican President Donald Trump, whose approval rating has fallen over the past year amid economic concerns. Many of New York’s 8 million residents — some with hope, some with trepidation …