President Donald Trump has attacked the U.S. electoral system in a furious tirade, reiterating one of his favorite claims that rigging is “common.”
In the early Monday rant, the 79-year-old called for voter identification as part of his crusade against Minnesota, which does not require citizens to bring documentation when exercising their democratic rights.
“Rigged Elections are common in the U.S., with the Presidential Election of 2020 being the Granddaddy of them all. WE DEMAND VOTER I.D.” he said, sharing a link to an article titled, “In Somali fraud scandal, Republicans probe evidence of a blue state election scheme.”
The article claims Republicans are investigating an alleged ploy to swamp key electoral districts with noncitizens to give Democrats an advantage. The conspiracy theory, long prevalent in more extreme MAGA circles, posits that Democrats exploit apportionment rules that do not discriminate between citizens and non-citizens to assess a Congressional district’s population. The Democrats, claim adherents of the theory, bring in illegal immigrants to make it easier to get districts drawn in their favor. Then, according to the theory, the illegal immigrants vote, exploiting the lack of voter I.D. laws. The theory does not address how the supposed illegal voters always vote against Republicans, or why they are never caught.
The convoluted and entirely unproven theory echoes Trump’s relentlessly repeated claims of election fraud during the 2020 election.
Trump and his loyal stooges alleged 2020 was stolen by Joe Biden, an accusation that has been consistently debunked but which preceded the January 6 insurrection that saw MAGA fans storm the Capitol building in Washington D.C.
Trump’s rant also comes against the backdrop of his race-centric vendetta against the Somali community in Minnesota and key political figures there.
In December, his xenophobic crusade saw him call the state’s sizeable Somali community “garbage” before surging an immigration crackdown, despite the majority of the 84,000 Somalians there being U.S. citizens.
He is also waging a war against Minnesota Democratic representative Ilhan Omar, which has been playing out over the course of several years, saying she should be arrested or deported despite being a U.S. citizen who arrived in the country as a child fleeing civil war.
In a Sunday night rant where he mispelled her name, Trump fumed, “There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know.
“She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!”
“ICE is removing some of the most violent criminals in the World from our Country, and bring them back home, where they belong. Why is Minnesota fighting this? Do they really want murderers and drug dealers to be ensconced in their community? The thugs that are protesting include many highly paid professional agitators and anarchists. Is this really what Minnesota wants?”
Then, referring to Minnesota governor Tim Walz, he added, “The crooked Governor and ‘Congresswoman’ Omar, who married her brother, don’t mind because it keeps the focus of attention off the 18 Billion Dollar, Plus, FRAUD, that has taken place in the State! Don’t worry, we’re on it!”
Walz, who ran on Kamala Harris’s unsuccessful ticket for the 2024 election, has also become a key target in Trump’s attack on the state.
Following a viral video by conservative content creator Nick Shirley that zeroed in on allegations of fraud in daycare centers, Walz announced he would not run for re-election and would instead devote his energy to governing for the remainder of his term.
A federal investigation into alleged fraud in Minnesota has been ongoing for years, with authorities reporting that over 80 people have been charged in relation to efforts to extract cash from social service programs. All the charges were brought under Joe Biden. Now, since Shirley’s video, the issue has been adopted and amplified by MAGA.
Despite Trump’s deportation push, the fact that most members of the Minnesota Somali community are U.S. citizens led Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey to tell the Guardian that deportation operations in the city had been “both scattered and even chaotic. “It’s not like there’s a factory or meat packing plant where they’re able to detain a large number of Somali immigrants,” he added.
Trump’s pearl-clutching about the sanctity of democracy comes after he moaned to Republican lawmakers that he would be called a dictator if he tried to cancel the midterm elections, despite saying he didn’t think the Democratic Party was worth running against.
Speaking at the Kennedy Center in January, he said, “I won’t say cancel the election, they should cancel the election because the fake news will say ‘he wants the elections canceled. He’s a dictator.’ They always call me a dictator.”
The post Trump, 79, Launches Deranged Attack on American Elections appeared first on The Daily Beast.
