Donald Trump is seemingly setting the stage to contest a potential loss in November by blustering about the election’s legitimacy and portraying the other party as a bunch of “cheaters” on the campaign trail.
Ranting loudly and incoherently about stolen elections is not a new tactic for the former president—famously, he did it so much in 2020 that it triggered an attempted insurrection by his supporters. Nor has it been absent from the 2024 campaign trail, with Trump repeatedly refusing to commit to accepting the election result.
“If we don’t win, you know, it depends,” he replied when prodded by Time in April. “It always depends on the fairness of the election.”
He has only escalated his feints at questioning the integrity of the election in recent weeks. On Sunday, with 36 days to go until Nov. 5, Trump dedicated part of a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, to mouthing off about Democratic officials and election workers in the area.
“If they didn’t cheat I wouldn’t even be here today—you know why? I wouldn’t have to campaign. I’m here only because they cheat,” he told a whistling crowd. “And they cheat in this state. Especially in Philadelphia… Philadelphia is out of control. Detroit is out of control. Atlanta is out of control. Places are out of control. Out of control.
A sign highlights efforts to sign up voters at the Bayfront Convention Center before a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
“If God came down from on high and said, ‘I’m going to be your vote tabulator for this election,’ I would leave this podium right now because I wouldn’t have to speak,” he added. “We wouldn’t have any problem. We have to have a landslide because they cheat so damn much.”
Election officials from both parties, academic experts, and a voter data expert hired by the Trump campaign have all unequivocally agreed that there is no evidence to support the claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, nor that the few fraudulent votes cast overhauled the race for Democratic candidates.
That hasn’t kept Trump’s allies from worrying. Republicans have already filed more than 100 lawsuits challenging various aspects of the electoral system, the Associated Press reported earlier this month. The Republican National Convention, which is now led by Michael Whatley, a close ally, and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, has stoked fears surrounding the election by announcing earlier this year that it was building “the most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history.”
Supporters celebrate the arrival of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
But the churning heart of the Republican Party’s election-denial engine has always been Trump himself. Speaking in Michigan on Friday, he regurgitated a favorite talking point about the Biden administration busing in “criminals” from Venezuela to cast votes.
The baseless claim went thusly: “Like in Caracas, Venezuela, the criminals have all been brought to the United States. Their crime rate is down in Caracas. In fact, I suggest if I lose—I’ll tell you what, it’s possible because they cheat. That’s the only way we’re gonna lose, because they cheat. They cheat like hell.” Cue crowd cheers.
A few days earlier, he’d logged onto Truth Social to once again raise the alarm. “The Democrats are talking about how they’re working os [sic] hard to get millions of votes from Americans living overseas,” he blared. “Actually, they are getting ready to CHEAT!”
Trump went on in the post to criticize voting by mail, a medium he’s long despised. He then shook a finger at the ghostly apparition of the fraudulent voter who apparently stands in the corner of his Mar-a-Lago bedroom at night. “Remember, IF YOU VOTE ILLEGALLY, YOU’RE GOING TO JAIL.”
Earlier this month, he warned an audience of North Carolina police officers to remain vigilant for signs of voter fraud this fall. “Watch for the voter fraud, because we win without voter fraud,” Trump said, according to Mediaite.
Former President Donald Trump poses for a picture with a supporter during a town hall event in Warren, Michigan.
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
“We win so easily. Hopefully, we’re going to win anyway. But we want to keep it down. And you can keep it down just by watching because, believe it or not, they’re afraid of that badge. They’re afraid of you people.”
From the campaign trail, his paranoia has wafted back to Washington, D.C., pervading the far reaches of Capitol Hill. Earlier this week, Congress passed a short-term spending package to avert a government shutdown only after Republicans removed their proposal that Americans be required to show proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Voting by non-citizens is already illegal in the United States, and studies have shown that the practice is “exceedingly rare,” according to Reuters. But the SAVE Act, as it was known, was a measure born of Trump’s demands.
“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION,” he wrote on Truth Social in the days before the vote.
After bringing the funding bill sans SAVE Act to the floor, House Speaker Mike Johnson bent over backwards to explain how he had taken Trump’s feelings into account.
“I’m not defying President Trump,” he insisted, according to NBC News. “I’ve spoken with him at great length, and he is very frustrated about the situation. His concern is election security, and it is mine, as well. It is all of ours.”
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