If God was the vote counter, Donald Trump says he’d win in a landslide.
The Republican nominee suggested on Thursday that divine intervention in next week’s election would reveal him as the rightful winner of even Democratic bastions like California.
On one level, Trump’s comment shows how his false election fraud claims have entered the outer realms of absurdity.
But this goes beyond hyperbole. Trump — who altered reality for tens of millions of Americans by claiming he was cheated out of power four years ago — is creating a sinister threat to the 2024 election and spinning a legacy of fractured trust that could taint presidential votes long after he’s left the stage. The election fraud claims that Trump most notably supercharged in 2020 to salve his humiliation at losing to Joe Biden are already at high intensity this year.
After laying out the darkest closing argument in modern American history, Trump is now increasingly turning to poisoning public confidence in the election. In New Mexico on Thursday, he falsely claimed the state was actually in his column in 2016 and 2020. “I believe we won it twice,” he said. “If we could bring God down from heaven and he’d be the vote counter, we’d win this, we’d win California, we’d win a lot of states. … You have just got to keep the votes honest.”
In reality, Trump lost New Mexico twice, by 8 and 11 points, and his claims he could win Democratic strongholds like California but for vote fraud are wildly off base. But they are part of a clear and deliberate strategy that is unfolding before the eyes of millions of voters to create an impression that Tuesday’s election will be fraudulent. This might seed ground for legal challenges if Trump loses, and it also serves to crank up fury among his supporters already primed by past false fraud claims. Trump is also working in conjunction with the conservative media machine to create an impression that his victory is a certainty and that a win for Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats can only be the result of fraud.
The ex-president’s increasing efforts to shatter the credibility of the 2024 election, as an apparent Plan B if he loses, coincide with a widening effort by GOP officials and “Make America Great Again” activists to position to undermine any Harris victory in courts, local election jurisdictions and even in state legislatures.
Comprehensive recent reporting by CNN has detailed these schemes.
- For instance, an investigation published on Thursday showed that some of the same activists who tried to overturn Biden’s victory in 2020 are building a step-by-step plan to undermine the results if Trump falls short again.
- Trump and Republican National Committee officials have increasingly floated claims about potential issues with mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
- House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican, said that “it makes a lot of sense” to allocate North Carolina’s electoral voters before votes are tallied because of the risk that the aftermath of Hurricane Helene could make it hard for some voters to cast ballots. The congressman later said the comment was taken out of context, but it revived fears that some GOP state legislatures — acting on hyped-up claims of fraud or other reasoning — could ignore the will of voters and award election victories to Trump.
- Republicans have also made extensive efforts, including in the House of Representatives, to highlight what experts say is the almost non-existent problem of voting by non-citizens.
- In one case this week, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pushed an 11th-hour effort to remove 1,600 suspected non-citizens from the rolls despite concerns the move will sweep up and disenfranchise some American citizens. A divided US Supreme Court allowed it.
- CNN reported Thursday that a misinformation microphone wielded by X owner and Trump supporter Elon Musk has become impossible for election officials in key battleground states to counter.
This catalogue of challenges to the fairness of the 2024 election, taken together with Trump’s increasing, bellicose claims of corruption, is creating a surreal new reality, given that the United States is the world’s most important democracy and has long been regarded by outsiders as the gold standard of self-governance.
A former and possibly future president who trashes elections as a tool of power
There is nothing unusual about extensive litigation in election season by both parties, which maintain armies of lawyers to challenge voting arrangements, counting practices and even results every election cycle. The 2000 election between then-Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush caused weeks of bitter legal fights over the close result in Florida, which was eventually resolved in the 43rd president’s favor by the US Supreme Court. Gore conceded that election, thereby guaranteeing an uncontested transfer of presidential power — a step Trump refused to take four years ago.
Declining to accept the result of elections has not exclusively been a Republican transgression. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, for instance, refused to concede her race against Republican Brian Kemp in 2018, citing voter suppression allegations, though the Democrat did accept her rival was elected.
But it is new to have a major presidential candidate slamming the fairness and legality of successive elections ahead of time and warning they will only accept results based on their arbitrary and often evidence-free evaluations of fairness.
Trump’s intentions shone through a Truth Social post on Thursday in which he seized on incidents in Pennsylvania to claim that the results in the crucial swing state are fraudulent. The cases concern a potential irregularity in Lancaster County involving around 2,500 voter registration forms. In York County, election officials have declined more than 700 “questionable” voter registration applications and referred them to the district attorney’s office for investigation, CNN’s Danny Freeman reported on Thursday.
Investigations are still pending and it’s possible fraud could be unearthed. But Trump is already off and running without waiting for the facts. “We caught them CHEATING BIG in Pennsylvania. Must announce and PROSECUTE, NOW! This is a CRIMINAL VIOLATION OF THE LAW. STOP VOTER FRAUD!” Trump wrote. “WE ARE ON THEM ALL THIS TIME! Who would have ever thought that our Country is so CORRUPT?”
Incidents in Pennsylvania show how the vortex of conspiracy theories created by Trump about US elections become self-fulfilling.
The alleged violations were discovered, which ought to underline how secure American voting really is. But instead, every new glitch becomes grist for yet another false claim.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that Trump’s claims of cheating in the commonwealth were “more of the same” from the ex-president. “Donald Trump wants to, again, use the same playbook, where he tries to create chaos and stoke division and fear, about our system. But again, we will have a free and fair, safe and secure election, in Pennsylvania, and the will of the people will be respected and protected.”
A dark new election tradition with a potentially devastating legacy
Trump’s assaults on the probity of American elections have made clear that a cycle of pre-election attempts to crush public confidence in the results has become as much of a presidential election tradition as primary season, the conventions and the historic moment when TV networks call the eventual winner.
The ex-president’s attempts to instill doubt in the system could also have a long-lasting legacy. Many polls show declining trust in the election system — and a new survey from CNN this week showed Trump’s antics have left the electorate jaundiced about his likely conduct next week. Just 30% of registered voters think Trump would accept the results of the election and concede if he loses, while 73% say that Harris would accept an election loss.
However, even if Americans may have concerns about their votes being counted, it’s not stopping them from casting ballots. More than 60 million Americans have already voted ahead of Tuesday’s election. And for all the tumult caused by Trump’s refusal to admit defeat and attempts to steal power after the 2020 election, the system did, eventually, ensure that the rightful winner of the presidency ended up in the Oval Office. The ex-president’s persistent and baseless claims of widespread fraud were thrown out by multiple courts at all levels including the Supreme Court.
Yet the longevity of a democracy rests on retaining the trust of the people. And if one of the candidates in a presidential election won’t accept that principle, the essential bargain between the governed and those who govern, which lies at the heart of the republic, is at risk.
For all America’s deep cultural and ideological divides, there was always a sense that elections could provide at least a temporary resolution to national disputes. That mythical trust in democracy was partially fractured in 2020 simply because Trump refused to admit defeat and then laid the foundation of his subsequent presidential campaign on the false premise that he won.
Gabriel Sterling, the Republican chief operating officer for Georgia’ secretary of state office, became a hero of democracy in 2020 with his clear denunciations of false fraud claims by the Trump campaign in his state. He is already warning that Americans need to recommit to bedrock values before next week’s election.
“We have had a history of over 200 years of the person who comes up short shaking the hand of the person who won and moving on,” Sterling told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.
One side, in perhaps the most fraught and portentous election in modern US history, will face this painful choice whenever this year’s result becomes clear. Trump has already signaled he’s unlikely to admit defeat whatever happens. And Harris, if she loses, will face the prospect of conceding to a rival she has called a fascist.
But such dilemmas represent the essence of democracy.
“We are going to have the most secure election in American history across the country, Georgia included,” Sterling said.
“We have to learn to accept outcomes.”
Trump unveils the most extreme closing argument in modern presidential history
As the ex-president’s allies defend him against Democratic claims he is a “fascist” and an authoritarian in waiting, based in part on warnings by his ex-chief of staff John Kelly, Trump on Sunday delivered a screed that may augur the most extreme presidency in modern history if he beats Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on November 5.
“The United States is an occupied country,” Trump said, as Democrats projected messages on the exterior of the storied New York City arena, reading “Trump is Unhinged” and “Trump praised Hitler.”
The huge rally was billed as the launch of the final stage of Trump’s bid to pull off one of the greatest comebacks in American political history after trying to overturn the result of the last election and leaving office in disgrace in 2021. Before he spoke, some of the ex-president’s top supporters flung race-based and vulgar rhetoric. Former congressional candidate David Rem called Harris the “antichrist” and “the devil,” while others lashed out at Hillary Clinton, “illegals” and homeless people. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
The Trump campaign later disavowed the line, with spokesperson Danielle Alvarez saying in a statement to CNN, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Much of Trump’s speech brimmed with falsehoods and exaggerations. It was exactly the kind of rhetoric that the Harris campaign believes could prompt moderate voters and disaffected Republicans to choose the vice president. But it also represents a bet from the Republican nominee that he can drive out a huge base turnout and activate voters who don’t normally cast ballots but who agree with his hardline politics.
If nothing else, it clarified the choice that voters face in the coming days, as Harris promises Americans they can move on from Trump’s extreme behavior that tested the rule of law and constitutional constraints on presidents during his first term.
The ex-president’s blistering anti-migrant rhetoric ranks alongside the most flagrant demagoguery by a major figure in any Western nation since World War II. But it was also complemented by a sharp economic argument that represented the second leg of Trump’s closing pitch and targeted the frustration of many Americans who are struggling with high grocery prices despite cooling inflation.
“I’d like to begin by asking a very simple question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Trump asked. “I’m here today with a message of hope for all Americans: With your vote in this election, I will end inflation. I will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country, and I will bring back the American dream.” He also said he would push for a tax credit for “family caregivers who take care of a parent or a loved one” – after Harris unveiled her own platform proposing that Medicare cover home health care.
“If Kamala Harris gets four more years, our economy can never recover. If I win, we will quickly build the greatest economy in the history of world,” he said.
The former president rooted his first presidential campaign in 2016 on inflammatory rhetoric about Mexican migrants. Eight years later, he is suggesting that migrants are directly to blame for citizens’ economic frustrations, in a conceit that has been used by far-right leaders throughout history.
A nation on edge
Trump’s dark appearance cranked up the palpable sense of tension blanketing the country a week before an election that may represent a national turning point. Supporters of each candidate harbor a sense of dread about what happens if their nominee loses, in a showdown that has highlighted two irreconcilable visions of the future — and what it means to be an American. The warnings from Trump that he envisages a presidency of all but unchecked power dedicated to “retribution” are bolstering a sense that a fateful moment is at hand.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz drew an allusion between Trump’s downtown Manhattan rally and a notorious 1939 pro-Nazi gathering at the previous arena on the same site, as Democrats now openly brand the ex-president as a “fascist.” The Minnesota governor said: “There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square Garden … and don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there.”
Sunday’s raucous event underscored how the 2024 presidential election is breaking the mold, since Trump is unlikely to be competitive in the state of New York next week. But the ex-president’s homecoming to a city where he built skyscrapers to reflect his outsize persona showed how candidates have sought headlines far from battleground states. Harris was in red-state Texas on Friday to highlight hardline GOP abortion policies she warns could spread countrywide if Trump wins. And on Tuesday, she’s holding an event in Washington, DC.
Both candidates are plunging into the final week of the campaign with polls showing a tied-up race in the swing states and nationally. The election is already underway, with 40 million Americans having voted early in person or by mail. The CNN Poll of Polls shows no clear leader nationally with Harris at 48% and Trump at 47%. The race will be decided across battlegrounds including the “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as the Sun Belt states of North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. The result could hinge on mere tens of thousands of votes, potentially setting the stage for tense counts over several days that will only fuel fears of a disputed election.
Harris plans her own closing argument — for a symbolic spot on Tuesday
Early voting explains why Harris will make her closing argument a full week ahead of Election Day, with a rally Tuesday evening on the Ellipse in Washington. The symbolism will be acute since it’s the site of Trump’s infamous gathering on January 6, 2021, when he told his crowd to “fight like hell” or they wouldn’t have a country before his mob smashed into the US Capitol to try to subvert the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory. Harris’ rally will provide an emphatic exclamation point for an increasingly important theme of her campaign — that Trump represents an existential threat to American democracy.
That message was at the center of Biden’s campaign until he folded his reelection bid in July. Harris didn’t prioritize the same theme initially, but she’s increasingly warming to it. But some Democrats worry that the American people are more interested in how she can quickly improve their economic circumstances. “How effective is attacking Trump for being a fascist? This topic is not as persuasive as contrast messages featuring Harris’s economic plans, and her promise to protect reproductive rights,” read an October 25 email from Future Forward, the top super PAC supporting the Harris campaign, sent to Democrats that was first reported by The New York Times and obtained by CNN on Sunday.
Trump has in recent days played into claims by Democrats and Kelly that he is an aspiring authoritarian.
That left GOP vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, seeking to cherry-pick and redefine the ex-president’s on-the-record comments and blaming the media for reporting exactly what his boss has said. Vance insisted in a fiery interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday that ex-president had not been referring to political opponents when he openly considered turning the military and the National Guard on the “enemy from within.” Trump, however, had however previously clarified he was talking about people such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Rep. Adam Schiff.
“He said that he wanted to use the military to go after far-left lunatics who are rioting, and … he also called them ‘the enemy within.’ He separately, in a totally different context, in a totally different conversation, said that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff were threats to this country,” Vance said.
Both Trump and Harris are targeting strategic sectors of their core electorates in the final days. Harris, for instance, on Sunday made a fresh attempt to win over Black male voters, some of whom seem to be moving toward Trump. At a barber shop in West Philadelphia, an area where she needs big turnout to counter Trump’s advantage in rural Pennsylvania, the vice president took part in a discussion with Black men focused on providing better opportunities. And she underscored the vital nature of the commonwealth and its 19 electoral votes — which could block her path to the White House if it goes for Trump, as it did during his 2016 election triumph.
“We’re going to do it — victory runs through Philly and it runs through Pennsylvania,” Harris said.
The vice president is also targeting another constituency that could help her to the White House — women voters, as she tries to harness the already significant gender gap to her advantage. She appeared in Michigan on Saturday with Michelle Obama — a reluctant political figure who nevertheless is hugely popular among Democrats. In a powerful speech, the former first lady did not just appeal to women, but to the “the men who love us” — warning that Trump’s history of building the conservative Supreme Court that overturned the federal right to an abortion would have grave implications for women’s health.
“Please, please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump, who knows nothing about us, who has shown deep contempt for us,” Obama said. “Because a vote for him is a vote against us, against our health, against our worth.”
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