Trump Flip Flops on Ballot Drop Boxes, Key Allegation About ‘Stolen’ 2020 Election: ‘PUT THEM ALL OVER THE PLACE’

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Former President Donald Trump dropped a major flip-flop on Friday in a post on Truth Social offering his full and total endorsement of ballot drop boxes.

Trump made the endorsement in a reply to ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec who wrote, “I don’t know who needs to hear this but Republicans should put ballot drop boxes in the back of churches in every state where it’s legal.”

“BEST IDEA I’VE HEARD IN A LONG TIME…PUT THEM ALL OVER THE PLACE. RNC, EVERY REPUBLICAN, GET TO WORK ON THIS NOW!!!” Trump wrote in a caption sharing Posobiec’s post.

Trump’s post is notable given his years-long insistence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, in part, due to ballot drop boxes.

“So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster,” Trump tweeted ahead of the 2020 election, already laying the groundwork to contest an election most pollsters saw him losing by a large margin.

“Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also, who controls them, are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud!” Trump concluded.

After the election, far-right conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza came out with a film and a subsequent book called 2,000 Mules which spun an elaborate, yet quickly debunked theory that Democrats hired “mules” to stuff ballot drop boxes and steal the election.

“Law enforcement officials and fact-checkers have thoroughly discredited the film’s allegations, and the filmmakers have declined to make key evidence for their central claims public,” reported NPR in October 2022, ahead of the midterm elections.

D’Souza’s claims became so influential in some circles on the right that groups of armed activists guarded drop boxes in states like Arizona, resulting in at least eight official complaints of alleged voter intimidation.

Trump has repeatedly railed against ballot drop boxes and as recently as late January during his rally in New Hampshire called for an end to the practice. “We have 64 days to vote now— someday we’ll be back to paper ballots, we’ll be back to voter ID, back to one day voting,” Trump said of the drop boxes, which usually collect ballots ahead of election day, reported Axios’s Josh Kraushaar at the time.

Trump’s railing against ballot drop boxes resulted in many changes in Republican-led states in 2022 regarding the practice, including in Texas, which limited drop boxes to only per county.

However, Trump and his allies in the past have argued for “rigging” elections in the same way they allege Democrats do, which could explain the sudden reversal as more of a troll than an actual embrace of ballot drop boxes. Whether or not states follow Trump’s lead and shift their stance on drop boxes will be an interesting trend to watch ahead of 2024.

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