Donald Trump didn’t make a lot of news during his latest campaign rally in Michigan, though Reuters highlighted a quote from the former president that stood out as notable.
Trump … reiterated his desire to eliminate early voting and denigrated mail-in voting, which is embraced by Democrats. Some Republicans have warned Trump’s opposition to mail-in voting could discourage some party members from casting ballots. “Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head,” Trump said.
In his next breath, the former president said in reference to the corruption of mail-in balloting, “It has to be. The votes. I mean, it has to be.”
Trump’s message to Republicans voters: Mail in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head. It has to be. The votes. I mean, it has to be pic.twitter.com/FYotJWzk3z
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 18, 2024
The idea that postal balloting “has to be” corrupt was an implicit acknowledgement that the Republican can’t produce any actual evidence to support his claims. In other words, Trump’s position is based almost entirely on his odd perceptions: He thinks mail-in voting seems like it could be corrupt, and so therefore, it is corrupt.
At face value, this might not seem especially interesting. After all, Trump has spent years condemning every election policy that makes it easier for Americans to cast ballots. We are, after all, talking about a former president who once wrote via social media, “YOU CAN NEVER HAVE FAIR & FREE ELECTIONS WITH MAIL-IN BALLOTS — NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.” (In case that was too subtle, one day later, the Republican re-published the missive, adding, “NEVER!”)
But just below the surface, there’s a little more to this.
After dramatic disappointments in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, Republican Party officials grudgingly came to realize that they’d made a costly mistake by turning their base against early voting and absentee balloting. GOP leaders concluded that they had little choice but to reverse course.
As Politico reported a month after the 2022 midterms, “As Republicans come to terms with their lackluster midterm performance, top GOP officials and conservative luminaries are acknowledging voters were led astray with calls to reject early and absentee voting. “
The former president was among the apparent converts. In February 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported, “After years of assailing early voting, Donald Trump is having a change of heart.” The article referenced a recent fundraising appeal Team Trump sent to donors, which said the Republicans’ path forward “is to MASTER the Democrats’ own game.”
A month later, the former president told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference that it was time for Republicans to “change our thinking” on early and mail-in voting. In July 2023, Trump even filmed a video for the Republican National Committee in support of the party’s early voting initiative. In other words, party officials, left with little choice, came to realize that the party had to embrace this obvious, legal, and entirely appropriate method of Americans casting ballots. To that end, they thought they’d finally dragged Trump to a more sensible position on the issue. He’s nevertheless reverted to his original position — peddling a line that is both completely wrong as a factual matter, and tactically flawed as an electoral matter. Democrats have reason to be pleased with Trump’s obstinate confusion.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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