On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, in the midst of a summer lead-up to the November midterm elections, former NBC executive and CNBC founder Tom Rogers, who now writes for Newsweek, had a wild election conspiracy filled with predictions of violence and chaos in a theory that could be described as stochastic terrorism.
The discussion was based on the SAVE America Act and President Trump’s planned address on Thursday night.
Co-host Jonathan Lemire turned to Rogers in the panel discussion to describe Rogers’ opinion piece in Newsweek titled “If ‘Save America’ Dies, How Could Trump Still Kill Elections.” Lemire described the SAVE America Act as something which “many people feel that would really restrict voting.”
On Morning Joe, former NBC executive Tom Rogers proposed an unhinged theory about Trump possibly stealing the midterms.
He predicted Trump would not allow Democrats to be seated in the House, then would be “stimulating violence” with troops at ensuing protests.
Rogers also… pic.twitter.com/bworhp7Stm— Nick (@nspin310) July 15, 2026
After Rogers described Trump’s “obsession” as “to do something to overturn the 2026 elections,” he began his step-by-step conspiracy:
And I think the speech tomorrow night, along with a number of other speeches he's given, is about laying the groundwork for him to take action. He's going to claim that the 2026 midterms were rigged if Democrats in key districts win, that would turn Congress into a Democratic majorities.
After he stated his big rigging claim, Rogers said Trump’s alleged predicted response to the midterm elections “will say the results can't be finalized until it's all investigated because there was foreign interference or illegal immigrants voting.”
He went on to suggest Trump would order Republicans not to seat some Democrats: “He would then probably order Congress to organize around Republican majorities and say, you can't seat members in districts where we're questioning the results.”
The next step of the grand conspiracy claimed Trump would be “stimulating violence” after the election in predicted ensuing protests: “I think what would follow from that is enormous street protests, probably stimulating violence on his part by bringing in troops.”
Then came his big scare tactics as he claimed Trump will use Presidential Emergency Action Documents, which he described as “in place to be signed in the event of a nuclear attack and civil society totally disintegrates and the president has to take some kind of emergency action.”
He then closed and warned that Trump is “laying the ground to be able to put those in effect,” which he described as the ability to do things like “arrest and detain people without trial” and “seize election machines.”
Rogers alleged that the talk of a “communist threat” helped prove his possible theory. He closed, “He's talking about something that he thinks he's going to be able to turn into a major crisis, to take actions like that. We'd be naive not to think so.”
Like many in the media, Rogers seemed to be “stimulating violence” himself with more fearmongering about Trump, who has faced multiple assassination attempts already.
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
July 15, 2026
8:45:42 AM Eastern
(...)
JONATHAN LEMIRE: But, Tom Rogers, it's far more about setting up pretenses for '26 and '28. He's trying to get the SAVE America Act pushed. Many people feel that would really restrict voting. It seems unlikely. It seems like it won't go anywhere on the Hill. But you've been thinking about ways he can sort of achieve similar objectives.
TOM ROGERS: Absolutely. I think we have a combination of desperation and obsession on Trump's part here. To do something to overturn the 2026 elections. Clearly, he's been frustrated by Congress not passing SAVE America. He's been frustrated by the courts who have shot down his attempts to change process when it comes to the midterms. And the question is, so what does he do?
And I think the speech tomorrow night, along with a number of other speeches he's given, is about laying the groundwork for him to take action. He's going to claim that the 2026 midterms were rigged if Democrats in key districts win, that would turn Congress into a Democratic majorities.
He will say the results can't be finalized until it's all investigated because there was foreign interference or illegal immigrants voting. He would then probably order Congress to organize around Republican majorities and say, you can't seat members in districts where we're questioning the results.
I think what would follow from that is enormous street protests, probably stimulating violence on his part by bringing in troops. And then it could get really scary. There's something that hasn't been focused on at all called PEADs or Presidential Emergency Action Documents. These are highly classified documents that have been in place since the Eisenhower administration.
When you hear Trump saying, “I have a lot of powers that people don't even know about”, or “I have very strong emergency powers,” he's probably referring to those. They've never been used. They're in place to be signed in the event of a nuclear attack and civil society totally disintegrates and the president has to take some kind of emergency action.
I think he's laying the groundwork to be able to put those, in effect. Arrest and detain people without trial, seize election machines. Obviously, all that would be litigated. But we know the courts move a lot slower than the administration would move in that kind of circumstance.
And I think we're headed with all this communist threat talk of a bigger threat than World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11. He's talking about something that he thinks he's going to be able to turn into a major crisis, to take actions like that. We'd be naive not to think so.
LEMIRE: Yeah. And we are seeing some Democratic officials starting to sound the alarm on that.
(...)
