At a campaign rally this past weekend, Donald Trump singled out a local GOP official in Delaware for praise. That wouldn’t have been especially notable, except the former president claimed that the official did the right thing by “getting rid of the mail-in voting.”
Trump praises a GOP official for "getting rid of the mail voting" pic.twitter.com/4wDTQ8zNb2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 11, 2024
As a factual matter, Trump’s comments weren’t altogether true, but he nevertheless made clear that he remains opposed to people casting absentee ballots through the mail. This was, however, a reversal of sorts: Just two days earlier, the presumptive Republican nominee released a video online in which he specifically touted “absentee voting” and “early voting.”
This, however, was the opposite of what he told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly two weeks earlier, when Trump called for eliminating early voting altogether. “You know, in the old days, it was Election Day,” the GOP candidate said. “Now it’s … 48 days; 48 days of cheating.” He went on to endorse “one-day voting.”
Six days prior, Trump said the opposite, publishing a message to his online social media platform endorsing “absentee voting” and “early voting.”
In other words, between April 19 and May 11, the former president was for, against, for again, and against again absentee balloting.
These incoherent shifts have been ongoing for quite a while. After the 2022 midterm elections, for example, Trump 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!”)
For a while, it seemed party officials who had the former president’s ear managed to nudge him in a more sensible direction. 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.
And then he switched back to his other position. “Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head,” Trump declared a few months ago, stepping all over his party’s message. “It has to be. The votes. I mean, it has to be.” Is it any wonder why the Republican base has absolutely no idea what to think? All things considered, Trump appears to have flip-flopped more on absentee and mail-in voting than on any other issue. What will his position be on this tomorrow? I won’t hazard a guess, though if recent history is any guide, it’ll be the opposite of what he says soon after. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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