Donald Trump has told a historic number of factual inaccuracies during his time in office. Some consider him one of the least truthful presidents of the modern era, by far. And one of the main platforms by which he makes his most spurious claims is Twitter. However, it seems even the laissez-faire bird-themed social media site has tired of Trump’s constant lies.
As we reported earlier, two of Trump’s tweets were flagged as carrying “misleading information,” citing fact-checking websites. Trump immediately saw this as an attempt by the platform to “silence conservative voices.” The tweets were about why we shouldn’t use mail-in voting in the upcoming presidential election. But why would Trump tell such blatant untruths about this system?
The tweets Twitter highlighted as being misleading or false involved Trump’s recent screed against mail-in voting. Increased focus is being given to the possibility of widespread mail-in voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Trump has furiously resisted any widespread efforts to extend voting to more people.
“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one,” Trump tweeted. This tweet now has a banner attached that informs viewers that the information is false.
Multiple political science studies have shown that the practice of mail-in voting does not increase the rate of voter fraud. Twitter’s link shows as much.
According to The Hill, “One hundred forty-three cases of fraud using mailed ballots over the course of 20 years comes out to seven to eight cases per year, nationally. It also means that across the 50 states, there has been an average of three cases per state over the 20-year span. That is just one case per state every six or seven years. We are talking about an occurrence that translates to about 0.00006 percent of total votes cast.”
With these statistics in mind, it’s clear that Twitter was right to flag Trump’s tweets as misleading and potentially carrying blatant lies. But Trump is pushing this narrative anyway. Why?
As the 2020 election nears, many wonder what will happen should Trump lose in the Electoral College. His political career thus far has been one of flaunting norms and upending institutions. He’s one of only three presidents to ever be impeached by Congress, and there are numerous investigations into his finances pending.
Some have even speculated that Trump may find himself in prison following his term as president. There is evidence that he is in defiance of the emoluments clause of the constitution. People are also suspicious of him paying off women prior to entering office. Women who, like Stormy Daniels, he had affairs with. This has led his critics to derisively remind Trump that he’ll need to save the number “877 Cash Now” for the day he leaves office.
If more people have access to voting, they might not vote for Trump, and that seems to be his biggest fear. The blatant lies about mail-in voting being fraudulent posted on his Twitter prove as much.
