New York Times columnist Paul Krugman fears that President Donald Trump’s insistent complaints of “voter fraud” are a setup to deny the legitimacy of a Democratic majority in the House should the party win in the midterm elections.

Those who don’t believe such a scenario is possible “haven’t been paying attention,” the Nobel laureate warned.

Trump has complained, without evidence, that as many as 5 million people voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election.

Hillary Clinton beat Trump in the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. Trump’s claim, if true, would wipe out that margin and then some.

Trump set up a commission to investigate the votes, but it has not substantiated his claims, nor has it issued any reports. Commission member Matthew Dunlap, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, said the panel was the “most bizarre thing I’ve ever been a part of.”

Yet Trump keeps raising the issue.

Krugman retweeted Trump’s warning Saturday that “all levels of government” are watching out for “VOTER FRAUD” in the upcoming elections.

Krugman is convinced that if the Democrats win a majority in the House, Republicans will claim the election was stolen, deny the legitimacy of the victory, and create a “nightmarish political situation.”

If Democrats don't at least take the House, God help us. But even if they do, we'll be facing a nightmarish political scene. Republicans will claim that the election was stolen, and deny the majority's legitimacy 1/ pic.twitter.com/M21pkFiIOw — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 21, 2018

Trump and the Republicans will “use claims of voter fraud to justify their disregard of the law and Constitution,” he said. “If you don’t think this is going to happen, you haven’t been paying attention.”

They'll also probably abuse executive power in many other ways. And they'll use claims of voter fraud to justify their disregard of the law and Constitution. If you don't think this is going to happen, you haven't been paying attention 3/ — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 21, 2018

If the Democrats win a majority and are allowed to take their posts and subpoena Trump records as part of various investigations, Trump will simply ignore the demands, according to Krugman.

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Democrats will gain subpoena power -- but expect the Trump administration to simply defy requests for information, the way they already are on issues like the Mar a Lago crowd's influence on the Veterans Administration 2/ https://t.co/4xQBKAA22t — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 21, 2018

In the very near future, many government officials will probably face hard decisions about whether to defy illegal orders from their political superiors. And remember, this is the good scenario 4/ — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 21, 2018

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