Jugular Time: Trump Should Demand a Constitutional Amendment to End Gerrymandering Once and for All

Now that the “Schumer Shutdown” has become the “Schumer Surrender,” the Democrats are distracted, disorganized, and organizationally discombobulated. For the next few weeks, they’ll be preoccupied with finger-pointing and nasty recriminations — with the radical left blaming the middle-left, the middle-left blaming the radical left, and every other donkey ducking for cover.

So the timing is perfect: Trump should strike while the metal is smoldering.

And for his next PR move, he should demand a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering once and for all.

Gerrymandering isn’t a new thing. It’s named after Elbridge Gerry, the fifth vice president of the United States. Before joining James Madison’s 1812 ticket, he was the governor of Massachusetts, where he approved oddly-shaped legislative districts, one of which resembled a salamander.

Hence the name, “gerrymandering.”

So, good policy or not, U.S. politicians have been gerrymandering districts for over 200 years. It’s an American tradition — even older than the Star-Spangled Banner, baseball, Coca-Cola, and Levi jeans.

But it’s NOT a good policy: It’s stupid, corrupt, and blatantly undemocratic. The entire point of gerrymandering is to take a wrecking ball to statewide proportional representation, undermining the will of the people for partisan gain.

And besides, the Democrats are way better at it than we are.

Of course, they’ve also had more practice: Some of the most outlandishly gerrymandered districts are in bright-blue states, with GOP representation either 100% eliminated or diluted far below the Republican voting percentage:

Massachusetts: 36% Republican, 0 Republican seats
Connecticut: 42% Republican, 0 Republican seats
Maine: 46% Republican, 0 Republican seats
New Hampshire: 48% Republican, 0 Republican seats
New Mexico: 46% Republican, 0 Republican seats
Rhode Island: 42% Republican, 0 Republican seats
Vermont: 32% Republican, 0 Republican seats
Hawaii: 38% Republican, 0 Republican seats
Delaware: 42% Republican, 0 Republican seats
California: 38.3% Republican, only 9 of 52 seats Republican (17.3%)
Illinois: 43.5% Republican, only 3 of 17 seats Republican (17.6%)
Oregon: 41% Republican, only 1 of 6 seats Republican (16.7%)
Maryland: 34& Republican, only 1 of 8 seats Republican (12.5%)
New Jersey: 46% Republican, only 3 of 12 seats Republican (25%)
New York: 43.3% Republican, only 7 of 26 seats Republican (26.9%)

To wrap your heads around the extent of the Democrats’ gerrymandering, consider: Kamala Harris won just 42.4% of the Texas vote in 2024 — a state with two Republican senators, a Republican governor, and that hasn’t gone Democratic in a presidential election in 50 years.

But right now, 34% of Texas’ congressional seats are still controlled by the Democrats.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump won 43.5% of the vote in Illinois — a higher percentage than Harris won in Texas — yet just 17.6% of Illinois congressional seats are controlled by Republicans!

So how can Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Ill.) claim that Trump is “cheating Americans out of their votes” with Texas’ redistricting… when Illinois is nearly TWICE as gerrymandered as Texas?!

The whole thing is a mess. It’s bad public policy.

And it gives President Trump an amazing PR opportunity: He can be the “grownup in the room,” drawing attention to the ridiculous degree of Democratic gerrymandering and positioning himself — and his fellow Republicans — as bipartisan, pro-American, pragmatic problem-solvers.

Step One: Trump should make a national, primetime address.

(I don’t know why Trump isn’t more proactive with national addresses. One of his strengths is as a communicator.)

Explain to the American people that gerrymandering has been around for a very long time, and until recently, the Republican Party has mostly ignored it. Use easy-to-follow statistics and visuals to demonstrate the extent of the Democrats’ gerrymandering.

(Hell, show ‘em the aforementioned state stats!)

In plain, direct language, give 'em the facts: When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, the Democrats won 52.9% of the votes in House elections… which somehow led to them controlling 59.1% of all the seats in the House of Representatives!

Gerrymandering subverts the will of the people. For all the talk of “Democracy dies in darkness,” what’s been going on in liberal states is blatantly undemocratic. This isn’t a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Instead, it’s politicians putting their fingers on the scales, disenfranchising voters, making a mockery of representative democracy.

Step Two: Unapologetically explain that the GOP will fight fire with fire — but only because we have to.

We don’t have a choice: It would be utter insanity to turn a blind eye as the Democratic Party secures a permanent 25-seat “buffer” that insulates it from political fallout.

If it’s fair and reasonable for blue states to be so thoroughly gerrymandered that Republican representation is literally zero, then it’s fair for red states to play the same game.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. (Or, for leftists, geese that identify as ganders. #loveislove)

In fact, I’d compare it to our crazy absentee voting laws: In an ideal world, everyone in America ought to vote on Election Day, but if states are gonna change the rules and allow all kinds of absentee voting, the GOP would be idiots if they didn’t participate, too.

We might not agree with the rules, but we’re obligated to follow ‘em.

Step Three: Offer an offramp: A constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering once and for all.

Instead of designing districts to protect D.C.’s career politicians, our #1 obligation ought to be the welfare of the people. It’s not fair to take a region full of farmers, but then carve it up into half a dozen congressional districts, simply because you don’t like how farmers vote.

That’s not democracy!

But that’s what the Democratic Party has been doing for centuries. Enough is enough. It’s gotten out of hand.

Districts ought to be designed to help the people, not the politicians.

Step Four: Offer your hand to the Democratic Party: Join us in supporting a constitutional amendment. Let’s do this together!

They won’t TAKE the offer. Whatever Trump supports, they oppose.

But that’s fine, too: Let the Democrats argue in favor of partisan gerrymandering.

Force 'em to remove their masks — and reveal to the American people their real, actual faces. Don’t let ’em continue the façade of “fighting fire with fire,” because that’s not what’s happening.

Even if Texas redistricts, giving 5 more congressional seats to the GOP, the new ratio would be 30 Republicans, eight Democrats (leaving the Dems with 21% of the seats).

Meanwhile, the CURRENT ratio in California is 43 Democrats, nine Republicans — leaving the GOP with just 17.3% of the seats!

Yet Gavin Newsom is threatening to gerrymander California even further:

This moment requires us to be prepared to fight fire with fire — and we won't hesitate to act if Texas Republicans move ahead with this ridiculous power grab. https://t.co/CvSkGceFur
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) July 30, 2025

California is countering @realDonaldTrump's attempt to rig the 2026 election and redistrict his way out of accountability in states like Texas.

We're fighting fire with fire — giving the power to the people to fight back and demand nationwide independent redistricting.
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) August 21, 2025

The benefit of this strategy is that it forces the Dems into a no-win position: They’ve either gotta defend gerrymandering — and acknowledge their culpability — or they’ve gotta bow their head to the president and join the GOP in following his lead.

And at the same time, their 2028 frontrunner, the well-coifed California governor, Gavin “Slick Willy II” Newsom, is deprived of his casus belli and biggest issue: Gerrymandering California to “fight fire with fire” against Texas.

Instead of Newsom being a “defender of democracy” — blocking the tyrannical overreach of “King” Donald Trump — he’ll look like just another partisan hack.

Whereas Donald Trump is the grown-up in the room, seeking bipartisan, win-win, “America First” policies that improve the lives of the people.

Because gerrymandering IS a bipartisan boondoggle. Always has been. (And besides, with districts switching congressmen and rewriting districts every few years, businesses won’t even know who to bribe anymore: How will anything get done?!)

Sometimes, the best PR of all is simply doing the right thing.

And ending the idiocy of gerrymandering is the right thing. Let’s seize the issue, boys and girls.

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