Trump alleges – President Trump used Truth Social late Wednesday to allege Democrats were “cheating” to win California’s primary elections, saying federal prosecutors in Los Angeles were investigating. A U.S. attorney’s office spokesperson declined to comment, while Gov. Gavi
For a third straight day of vote-counting drama, President Trump turned to social media with a familiar accusation and a familiar question—only this time, he aimed it at California’s primary elections.
Late Wednesday. Trump posted on Truth Social that Democrats were trying to “STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY. AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES. PRIMARY” from “TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES.” He added that the “very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS” were evidence. writing: “The Dumocrats are at it again!. They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY. AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES. PRIMARY. AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”.
In a second post, Trump escalated the language further: “There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles,” he wrote. He followed that with a blunt refrain—“Why the vote counting DELAY???”.
Thursday morning brought only silence from the one office Trump referenced. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles—run by Trump loyalist First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli—declined to comment when asked about the president’s claims.
California’s Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Newsom’s response came within hours. Late Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office posted on social media saying: “Trump is lying about California again — time to take the phone away from grandpa and put him to sleep.”
On Thursday morning. Newsom’s office expanded its rebuttal. saying there is “a lot of misinformation floating around about California’s election — including from the President. ” and recommending people watch a CNN video about California’s election process. The post argued that delays in vote counting in the state are essentially tied to state leaders deciding that providing voters with “last minute options” for casting ballots matters more than a faster count. It also acknowledged the frustration directly: “And yes, for the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too.”.
In an email, Brandon Richards, Newsom’s deputy director for rapid response, said Trump’s claims fit “a tinfoil hat level conspiracy theory that has been debunked repeatedly.”
The president’s allegations were never new to California voters—or to election-watchers. The idea that the state’s mail-ballot system would distort results was predicted before the election by elections experts and Democratic leaders in California. who dismissed Trump’s warning in advance as baseless bluster tied to a president facing low approval ratings.
Even those acknowledging the system needs to be faster stress that the reasons are not nefarious. California’s process. they say. allows voters to cast ballots by mail up until election day. and those ballots can number in the millions. They also must be manually verified through signature checks, a step that takes time.
Trump has repeatedly rejected that explanation. He has dismissed vote-counting delays and suggested fraud when Republicans lose or lose ground.
An election denier since he entered politics more than a decade ago. Trump has pushed skepticism about elections his party loses since he first began challenging results. Most notably, he claimed—again without evidence—that the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden was stolen. He also challenged Biden’s victory in court. but his claims were rejected completely because neither he nor his attorneys produced evidence substantiating them.
That pattern has extended to other claims. Trump has combined his attacks on undocumented immigrants with skepticism about election integrity. alleging again without evidence that such immigrants vote in large numbers. particularly in big blue states such as California. despite experts saying there is no evidence of that. He has also alleged mail ballots—used by the majority of California voters—are a rich source of voter fraud. despite the claim having no basis and being disputed by experts.
The president’s push has also spilled into policy fights. He has tried to use the power of his administration to make sweeping changes to election laws to bar mail ballots and require strict voter ID and proof of citizenship measures. despite the control of elections and their rules being constitutionally given to the states. Those efforts have prompted a wave of litigation between the Trump administration and California and other blue states. with multiple cases pending in the courts over voter ID. proof of citizenship. mail balloting and the role that the U.S. Postal Service may be allowed to play in processing such ballots.
Trump’s remarks came as vote totals continued shifting in two high-profile California contests. Additional vote counting on Wednesday narrowed the advantage of Republican Steve Hilton over his Democratic challengers in the California governor’s race. In the Los Angeles mayoral race. the gap also closed between the MAGA-aligned candidate Spencer Pratt. currently running second. and City Councilmember Nithya Raman. who is running third.
Election experts had warned before counting began of a “red mirage. ” a phenomenon where earlier voting among Republicans and late voting among Democrats—many uncertain about whom to vote for in those two statewide-name contests—can create an early illusion of Republican victories. They argued that the large volumes of liberal votes from major population centers would arrive later.
That expectation was not lost on California officials. Elections officials in California knew such claims were going to be made, because they have been made in past cycles. Some local elections officials prepared their staffs for baseless fraud allegations in advance of this year’s primaries. and state officials made repeated efforts to explain why California elections take time—attempting to undercut narratives that delays were proof of fraud.
Still, the claims came anyway, and not just from Trump.
Above an X post Wednesday suggesting Pratt was losing ground to Raman as more counts came in, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote: “California keeps dumping votes. Odds are shifting because the vote dumps always seem to go one way. Count until you get the result you want?”
Above another X post Wednesday noting that the California count would take time. Katie Miller. a former Trump administration official and conservative podcaster married to Trump’s top advisor Stephen Miller. wrote: “The Democrats are about to steal the LA mayoral race once again using mail-in voting.”.
Those posts DeSantis and Miller were responding to were from Polymarket, a prediction market where people can bet on political races, pop culture events and other subjects.
The growing role of these emerging financial markets—where people can bet on outcomes and where activity involves billions of dollars—has raised concerns about political meddling for profit. Officials and watchdogs have pointed to fears of campaign staffers or other individuals with access to insider information influencing bets. as well as politicians and operatives whose public remarks could sway those markets.
In California, the president’s accusation hit the same nerve it has before: the tension between slow, mail-based counting and a political appetite for fraud narratives that arrive whenever results threaten to slip away.
Trump Truth Social California primary mail-in ballots Gavin Newsom Shirley Weber Los Angeles mayoral race Steve Hilton Spencer Pratt Nithya Raman U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles Bill Essayli election fraud claims