Trump Requests Mail-In Ballot After Spending Year Attacking the Practice as Corrupt

After repeatedly assailing the practice of mail-in voting as corrupt in an effort to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him, now former President Donald Trump requested a mail-in ballot this week to vote in Florida’s state elections.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections sent a mail-in vote for Trump to his Mar-a-Lago resort ahead of the local municipal election, according to multiple reports. Trump might be too late, however: The Palm Beach Post reports that his request came about a week after the deadline for mail-in ballots, and his vote has not been marked down on county records as of Monday.

Throughout his re-election campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed without evidence that mail-in voting was subject to such massive fraud and interference that its widespread use would delegitimize the election. This culminated in Trump threatening to defund the Post Office in order to halt expansions for mail-in voting despite concerns about people gathering at the polls during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump’s request in Florida wouldn’t be the first time he exhibited hypocrisy on mail-in votes. Last year, Trump admitted he mailed his vote even as he continued to blast the practice as corrupt. Other members of his administration have partaken in mail-in voting as well.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, he incorporated his attacks on mail-in voting into his baseless conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from him. His attempts to dispute the election were shot down dozens of times in court, but he kept pushing false claims, ones that eventually culminated in a horde of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6th in an effort to violently overturn his loss to President Joe Biden.