President-elect Donald Trump won the election outright after spending months preparing his followers to deem any loss the subject of fraud. With that win, though, the groundwork he laid didn’t simply vanish into the ether. What we’re now seeing is the MAGA movement twist and contort itself to try to make this new reality fit into its established worldview.
Trump voters themselves have proved remarkably malleable in this way. Prior to the election, a full 87% of Trump voters contacted in a survey by Politico and Morning Consult agreed that voter fraud was going to be a serious issue that could determine the race’s outcome. You may be shocked to learn that number plummeted during a survey conducted after the results were in, with only 24% thinking now that fraud could have determined the winner (or did).
Trump voters themselves have proved remarkably malleable in this way.
You’ll note, though, that number isn’t “zero,” as some people are still readily clinging to the specter of voter fraud and rewriting history in the process. A major conspiracy theory that circulated on the right after Election Day was that Trump’s victory vindicated their claims of fraud in 2020. Seeing Vice President Kamala Harris lose with fewer votes than Trump had earned four years ago became warped evidence that the previous race was rigged. (The difference in final vote count is better explained by how long California takes to tally its ballots and a wave of onetime voters opting to stay home this year.)
It’s in this space that conservative election deniers are operating, working to bolster their own priorities now that one of their major motivators lies dormant. “The election denial movement has been evolving and shapeshifting in an effort to stay relevant,” Lizzie Ulmer, a senior vice president at States United Action, recently told Reuters. And while less overtly coordinated than the “Stop the Steal” effort that materialized after Trump’s 2020 loss, many of the goals and members remain the same.
Among them are the enablers and charlatans who are ready to sweep the less comfortable parts of their previous narratives under the rug. Conservative historian slash MAGA windbag Dinesh D’Souza was one of the loudest voices alleging voter fraud in 2020. Over the weekend, he posted an apology letter to his website stemming from his documentary “2000 Mules.” Endorsed by Trump and many of his acolytes, the film falsely claimed that a web of Democratic operatives dumped thousands of fraudulent ballots for Joe Biden in drop boxes around the country and that this was enough to “steal” the election from Trump.
In the letter, D’Souza specifically apologized to one person, Mark Andrews, who was labeled a ballot harvester (one of the supposed “mules”) and filed a defamation lawsuit in response. The film’s distributor, Salem Media, issued a similar retraction earlier this year. But it’s worth noting D’Souza mostly throws the group that provided the incorrect data “2000 Mules” analysis under the bus. He also doesn’t fully repent, writing that “the underlying premise of the film holds true” while offering a modicum of remorse for any harm caused to Andrews.
A number of Republicans are shifting tactics on mostly nonexistent voter fraud while retaining their overarching goals. After Trump’s loss in 2020, many GOP-controlled state legislatures hurried to pass stricter election laws on the pretense of blocking further cheating by Democrats. It would have been easy for them to pat themselves on the back and hang up a “Mission Accomplished” banner now that Trump’s headed back to the White House.
Instead, Republicans are doubling down to try to lock in their gains against future electoral losses, with even stricter laws being considered in Georgia and Arizona. Congressional Republicans will also likely resurrect the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would force states to require documentary proof of citizenship when people register to vote. It’s a hurdle that would make registration harder for many voters in the name of solving the nonissue of noncitizens voting.
The thing about MAGA is that it doesn’t have to provide a coherent set of facts to uphold its ideology.
It’s been evident for years that voter fraud claims are often a self-serving pretext for conservative activists fighting increased access to the ballot box. That’s especially evident based on which groups have been targeted to have their ballots rejected and which cities have been accused of supporting mass fraud. (Hint: It is usually Democrats and, specifically, minorities who bear the brunt of these claims even as plenty of Republicans have been prosecuted for election crimes.)
The thing about MAGA is that it doesn’t have to provide a coherent set of facts to uphold its ideology. At its core is the presumption that Trump should be victorious and deserves the power that he amasses and distributes. Anything beyond that is plasticine ready to be sculpted for whoever is hoping to benefit, much the same way that many voters projected their hopes onto Trump — despite not liking a lot of the things he’s promised to do.
With such a simple framework, at heart, there’s little that can’t be folded into the narrative. When confronted with something that might shake that faith, the easiest thing to do is simply take a proverbial eraser to the past and fill in the blanks with whatever feels right in the moment.
Should the need arise in the next election, it will be all too simple to revive the same false claims as if they had never left. It leads to a world where elections are both entirely safe when you win and immediately suspect when you lose. But that kind of cognitive dissonance hurts only if you’re willing to accept that one of those things might be wrong.
