- Donald Trump said on Truth Social that absentee and early votes are "good options" for Republicans.
- The reversal comes after years of Trump sowing doubt in the voting system, arguing it's rife with fraud.
- The new stance, while unlikely to stick, won't reverse the damage he's done, a political scientist told BI.
Donald Trump has inexplicably flip-flopped from his years of previous remarks disparaging the voting system and is now supporting absentee and early voting.
"Absentee voting, early voting, and election day voting are all good options," the former president wrote on Truth Social on Friday afternoon. "Republicans must make a plan, register, and vote!"
Representatives for Trump responded to a request for comment from Business Insider, saying his Friday statement "speaks for itself," and declined to answer further questions.
The latest remarks split decisively from the rhetoric Trump has espoused over the better part of the last decade, in which he has repeatedly claimed the voting system is rigged and rife with fraud. The former president has even backed lawsuits trying to end the practice of mail-in voting in seven states.
While "vote-by-mail" and "absentee voting" are phrases often used interchangeably, there are minor differences in the procedures for each system. Most states that allow absentee voting require voters to request a ballot ahead of the election, with some requiring a reason they will be unable to vote in person on election day, while states with vote-by-mail systems proactively mail out ballots to registered voters.
Only eight states allow all elections to be conducted entirely by vote-by-mail systems. Both absentee and vote-by-mail systems allow voters to mail their ballots through the US Post Office.
Trump has previously targeted "mail-in ballots," claiming their widespread use in 2020 would lead to "the most RIGGED Election in our nations history," The Los Angeles Times reported.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, in his effort to prove Trump attempted to illegally overturn the 2020 election results, has pointed to social media posts as far back as 2012 — in which Trump claimed without evidence that voting machines switched ballots cast for candidate Mitt Romney to votes for then-candidate Barack Obama — as proof Trump has intentionally "sowed mistrust in the results of the presidential election" for years.
Nicholas Grossman, an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois, told Business Insider it's unlikely Trump will maintain his newfound position supporting absentee and early voting. He added that the Truth Social post sounds like a statement a GOP official or campaign staffer would encourage Trump to post to drum up enthusiasm for the coming election.
CNN reported that ranking Republicans have recently embraced early and mail-in voting — and Trump may be following suit in an attempt to have the strongest turnout during this year's election.
But even if Trump suddenly had a change of heart, Grossman said, it would be too late to reverse the damage he has done by sowing doubt in the electoral system. Trump's most stringent supporters, Grossman noted, aren't likely to suddenly have faith in our electoral procedures just because Trump changed his messaging on the topic a few months ahead of the election.
"Because the conspiracy theories have flourished in part from Trump, but also from a whole lot of media for the last decade or so, that damage is, to some extent, permanent," Grossman told Business Insider. "And even despite this latest statement, he's still casting doubt on the election in general. That's been his rhetoric for years at this point — trying to undermine democracy and especially undermine American's faith in the democratic system."
"If Trump loses, he's going to lie about it like he did in 2020. And if he wins, he will probably still lie about it — like he did in 2016 when he claimed millions of people voted illegally in California, and claiming he actually won California," Grossman added, "Even winning the election, he couldn't help himself with lying like that, so I expect that he will again."