{"id":684349,"date":"2026-06-04T18:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684349\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T18:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:06:15","slug":"trump-claims-without-proof-democrats-are-trying-to-steal-california-primaries-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684349\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump claims without proof Democrats are \u2018trying to steal\u2019 California primaries | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> has alleged without evidence that Democrats<\/a> are cheating in California<\/a>\u2019s primaries and claimed in a late-night social media post that the US attorney\u2019s office in Los Angeles was investigating.<\/p>\n

As counting continues in the most populous state in the US, the president\u2019s unfounded remarks are likely to further alarm election observers, who have warned<\/a> of the risk of escalating misinformation in the absence of a final result.<\/p>\n

Trump has a history of undermining election results that don\u2019t go in his favor. He has repeatedly alleged that Democrats \u201cstole\u201d the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden, despite privately admitting his defeat<\/a>, according to aides.<\/p>\n

At 12.48am on Thursday, Trump posted<\/a>: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California,\u201d he said<\/a> 17 minutes later in another post on his Truth Social platform. \u201cVotes are all tied up<\/a>. May not be in for weeks<\/a>. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY??? President DJT\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US attorney\u2019s office said it had no comment on Trump\u2019s claim that his allegations of cheating are \u201cunder investigation\u201d by US attorneys. The Department of Justice in Washington DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The president presented no substantive basis for questioning the legitimacy of the election.<\/p>\n

Mail-in ballots factor heavily in California<\/a> political races \u2013 typically about 80% of votes cast \u2013 and those ballots can be counted up to a week after election day, as long as they are postmarked before election day.<\/p>\n

California uses a \u201cjungle\u201d primary process<\/a>, in which the two candidates with the most votes advance to a runoff \u2013 regardless of their political party \u2013 unless one candidate wins an outright majority. A huge field of 61 candidates fragmented the vote in the race for governor, but Republicans have coalesced around Steve Hilton<\/a>. Together with Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer, the three are in a contest that<\/a> remains<\/a> too close to call as votes are tallied.<\/p>\n

Mail-in ballots tend to favor Democrats<\/a>, which implies the possibility that Hilton \u2013 whom Trump has endorsed \u2013 may drop into third place by the time all the ballots are counted.<\/p>\n

The last Republican to win the California gubernatorial race was Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. Republicans have polled just under 40% in each of the last four contests.<\/p>\n

Last month Gavin Newsom<\/a> sent a letter to elections officials to thank them for their work while warning that a long process invites disingenuous accusations of misconduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must acknowledge that the longer the vote count takes, the more mis- and dis-information spreads,\u201d wrote<\/a> the California governor. \u201cThat means we must do all that we can to tabulate votes quickly and accurately. Time is of the essence in preventing election lies from taking root.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, election observers echoed those concerns. \u201cConducting elections with integrity and ensuring that every eligible vote is counted are fundamental to maintaining public confidence in our democracy,\u201d said Mike DuHaime of the Democracy Defense Project, a bipartisan effort to combat election misinformation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, prolonged delays in ballot tabulation, such as those that have become increasingly common in California, can undermine public trust and create unnecessary uncertainty around election outcomes,\u201d DuHaime added. \u201cThe longer election results remain unresolved, the greater the opportunity for misinformation and speculation to spread online, eroding confidence in our electoral process. Accuracy must always remain the highest priority, but accuracy and timeliness are not mutually exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has alleged without evidence that Democrats are cheating in California\u2019s primaries and claimed in a late-night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-684349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}