Much has been made of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump‘s particularly threatening social media post over the weekend, in which the former president threatened “long term prison sentences” for “people that CHEATED” in the upcoming (or the 2020?) election. (CNN headline: Trump warms up for debate by threatening to jail election officials.)
In an unambiguous attempt to intimidate his political opponents and their supporters, Trump asserted that his vengeance “when I win” will include not just big name Democratic office holders, but also “Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials.”
CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.
Donald Trump
The threatening post also comes on the heels of increased calls for the media to hold Trump’s mental state more steadily under the microscope, as the nominee leans further into threats of violence and promises of political retribution in speeches that careen from grievance to false assertions and back without addressing policy or even the questions he’s asked.
Yet in the above post, receiving coverage mostly for its sweeping list of those Trump promises to prosecute if he wins in November, Trump’s growing tendency to contradict himself is again present — and this time Trump seems to say that the 2024 election will be unlike the 2020 election that he asserts contained “rampant cheating and skullduggery.” The 2024 election, Trump appears to promise, will be more accurate.
Following Trump’s language closely, he states that “the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny” — a statement from which it follows that such a closely scrutinized process will produce more legitimate results.
Trump even begins his post by saying who will conduct this “closest professional scrutiny,” writing that “I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely.”
In 2020, Trump claimed that “sanctity” was violated, as he did not monitor the election closely enough — asserting that that’s why he was able to be “cheated” out of what he claimed was his victory. Yet in 2024 he pledges an enormous MAGA effort to subject the voting process — already extremely secure — to his own “professional scrutiny.”
Lara Trump, co-chair of the RNC, has also promised a small army of poll watchers nationwide to subject the vote to greater scrutiny. With these MAGA scrutiny measures in place, it will be far harder for Trump to credibly claim he was cheated if he loses, since this time he says he and his team are being professionally vigilant in the search for the “cheating” he alleges.
A different strategy — and one which the erratic candidate may yet revert to — is to claim the opposite of what he claims above and to say instead that he has no real way to monitor the elections. If it is impossible to know much about the voting, it is far easier to shout about corruption, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) demonstrated in May, claiming intuition as his evidence.
At a press conference with Trump to introduce redundant legislation aimed at reducing the already illegal practice of non-citizen voting, Johnson said: “We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it’s not been something that is easily provable.”
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