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Coming to terms with Donald Trump’s position on early voting should be relatively straightforward. It’s not.
A few weeks ago, for example, the former president held an event in Minnesota, where he condemned early voting as “ridiculous.” This week, as a Washington Post report noted, the Republican changed his mind again.
The Republican National Committee is launching a campaign to encourage Republicans to vote by mail — something former president Donald Trump has spent years telling his voters can’t be trusted. The RNC — which Trump effectively controls — is starting an effort called “Swamp the Vote” to promote absentee, mail and early voting, Trump’s campaign said Tuesday.
In an online video promoting the initiative, the presumptive GOP nominee said, “Many Republicans like to vote on Election Day, and we must swamp the radical Democrats with massive turnout on Tuesday, November 5th. The way you win is to swamp them. If we swamp them, they can’t cheat. It just doesn’t work out. But if you can’t make it, you need to make a plan, register and vote any way possible.”
For now, let’s put aside the oddity of the project’s name — “Swamp the Vote” isn’t exactly a marketing masterstroke — and instead focus on the fact that Trump can’t seem to make up his mind on the issue.
At a campaign event on May 11, the former president condemned mail-in voting. Two days earlier, the Republican 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.
As regular readers know, 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.”
He’s since changed his mind — several times.
This is more than just a point of curiosity: The Republican base has absolutely no idea what to think about absentee balloting and voting by mail, and the former president’s followers aren’t sure which of his competing messages to believe.
Trump and the RNC are now encouraging the party’s voters to take advantage of early-voting opportunities, but officials shouldn’t be surprised if the base is skeptical. After all, Trump told them to be.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.