Donald Trump Amps Up Fraud, Cheating Claims As Early Voting Set To Begin

With early voting fast approaching, the rhetoric by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has turned more ominous with a pledge to prosecute anyone who “cheats” in the election in the same way he believes they did in 2020, when he falsely claimed he won and attacked those who stood by their accurate vote tallies.

He also told a gathering of police officers last Friday that they should “watch for the voter fraud,” an apparent attempt to enlist law enforcement that would be legally dubious.

Trump has contended, without providing evidence, that he lost the 2020 election only because of cheating by Democrats, election officials and other, unspecified forces. On Saturday, Trump promised that this year those who cheat “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law” should he win in November. He said he was referencing everyone from election officials to attorneys, political staffers and donors.

“Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,” Trump wrote in the post on his social media network Truth Social that he later also posted on X, the site once known as Twitter.

The former President’s warning — he prefaced it with the words “CEASE & DESIST” — is the latest increase in rhetoric that mimics that used by authoritarian leaders.

Election experts and several state and local election officials were quick to condemn the former president’s comment, which they viewed in part as an attempt at intimidation as offices are preparing for the start of voting.

Barb Byrum, the clerk of Ingham County, Michigan, said she thinks Trump’s post is an attack on democracy aimed at driving election officials out of the profession.

“But I