I doubt Donald Trump thinks Chuck Gray is allowing noncitizens to vote. Indeed, when the Wyoming Secretary of State first ran for the office in 2022, Trump endorsed him. In 2024, Wyoming overwhelmingly voted for Trump for president.

Nevertheless, on Tuesday, Trump's Department of Justice sent Gray and the chief election officials in the other 49 states a letter warning that they could face criminal prosecution over possible noncitizen voting.

Utah's top election official, Deidre Henderson, posted on social media that the letter was "truly bizarre behavior." The Republican Lt. Governor noted that the DOJ "is supposed to be protecting civil rights."

I can say confidently that neither Gray nor Henderson has anything to worry about. Like their colleagues in the other 48 states, they have done nothing to warrant the insulting correspondence they received.

Though I have profound differences with many Republican chief election officials, I have no doubt they, like their Democratic counterparts, aim to keep noncitizens off their voter rolls and have done nothing remotely criminal.

But keeping noncitizens from voting wasn't the point of the DOJ's letter. Nor is it the point of DOJ's announcement that it is sending "observers" to watch primary elections in fifteen jurisdictions across six states — Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia.

No, the point of both efforts, like so much in the Trump era, is...