NEW YORK — Few ideas are more fundamental to US President Donald Trump’s political brand than his consistent claim that the American left steals elections at his expense. If we don’t stop them, he warns his followers, we won’t have a country anymore. When he (fairly) defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, but without winning a majority of votes, he insisted that millions had voted against him illegally, and that the Democratic Party had “rigged the election at polling booths.” When he lost to Joe Biden in 2020, he made these and other charges, then encouraged a riot at the Capitol to try to halt the election’s certification. In 2024, he said Democrats had recognized his victory over Kamala Harris only because the margin had been “too big to rig.” Now Trump faces his final popular vote. His name won’t appear on the ballot this November, but the results of the midterm elections for Congress are nearly always considered a referendum on the incumbent president and his performance, and that’s especially true when his party holds majorities in both legislative houses. This el