Elections Aren’t the Only Things Trump Thinks Are Rigged
It’s always somebody else’s fault when things turn against him.
Don’t expect him to think strategically.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
About two weeks before Election Day in 2016, Donald Trump was campaigning in his signature way. He accused Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, a Republican, of colluding with Hillary Clinton to get her elected president. His campaign website warned of fraud: “Help Me Stop Crooked Hillary From Rigging This Election!” He invoked the specter of deceased Democrats voting from the grave. “You have 1.8 million people who are dead, who are registered to vote, and some of them absolutely vote,” he said on TV. “Now, tell me how they do that.”
Trump hatchet man Roger Stone, a future felon, launched a nonprofit group, Stop the Steal, to police polling sites on Election Day. “If there’s real evidence of electoral fraud then it’d be un-American of [Trump] to not challenge the results,” Stone told Politico. Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, chimed in: “Voter fraud cannot be tolerated by anyone in this nation.” Trump flooded Twitter with conspiracy theories: “Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day,” he tweeted on Oct. 17, 2016. “Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naïve.”