President Donald Trump accused Democrats of trying to steal the California primary elections amid reports that it could take weeks before the state’s final vote totals are known in multiple primary elections. He made the comments in two social media posts on his Truth Social account after midnight on Thursday.
“The Dumocrats are at it again!” Trump said in his first post. “They are trying to steal the governor of California primary, and the mayor of Los Angeles, primary, away from two great Republican candidates. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of mail in ballots.”
Trump has been a consistent and vocal critic of mail-in ballots and has regularly linked them to accusations of voter fraud. In the 2020 presidential election, Trump claimed that the election was rigged after large numbers of mail-in ballots were counted after polls closed on Election Day. In several states where Trump had an initial lead, the advantage evaporated after the mail-in ballots were counted. In recent months, he has called for banning mail-in ballots, even as he continues to link their use to fraud.
In March, Trump issued the executive order “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” which, about mail-in voting, recommended the use of “secure ballot envelope identifiers” such as bar codes to “provide a reliable, auditable mechanism to enforce Federal law without unduly burdening or infringing on the rights of eligible voters.”
In the Los Angeles mayoral election, with 63% of the vote counted as of Wednesday at 8:52 p.m., incumbent Democrat Karen Bass had the highest percentage of total votes so far with 35.0% and 183,701 votes, according to the Associated Press. Republican Spencer Pratt is next with 29.9% and 157,116 votes, followed by Democrat Nithya Raman with 22.8% and 119,809 votes.
In the California gubernatorial primary, with 56% of votes counted as of Wednesday at 8:54 p.m., Republican Steve Hilton was in the lead at 27.6% and 1,421,466 votes. Next was Democrat Xavier Becerra with 25.6% and 1,318,536 votes, followed by Tom Steyer with 19.8% and 1,019,332 votes.
In a second Truth Social post after 1 a.m., Trump again accused the Democrats of cheating in California and that the voting methodology in Los Angeles was under federal investigation. The president didn’t provide any additional details regarding each statement.
“There’s big cheating by the Dumocrats in California,” Trump said. “Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting delay?”
Trump didn’t provide any evidence or elaborations of his accusations in the social media posts.
The X account for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Press Office responded to Trump’s accusations, dismissing Trump’s comments and claims in his posts.
“Trump is lying about California again — time to take the phone away from grandpa and put him to sleep,” read the post.
DESANTIS RIPS CALIFORNIA VOTING COUNT DELAYS: ‘IT’S PATHETIC’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also commented on Wednesday about the delay in California’s vote counting, calling the lag “pathetic” and saying the slow vote-counting process was detrimental to American society.
“Florida processes more than 10 million votes in a matter of hours,” DeSantis said in a post on X. “California takes days — or sometimes even weeks — to count the votes.”
“It’s pathetic — and it’s corrosive to our civic culture,” said DeSantis.
