President Donald Trump will be voting with a mail-in ballot for the upcoming primary elections in Florida, amid his ongoing criticisms of the practice. According to USA Today, this is the second time that Trump has voted by mail-in ballot in the state, as he claims his official residence to be Palm Beach County. This is where his famous Mar-a-Lago club is located. Notably, just this week, Trump asserted that “there is nothing wrong with getting out and voting” amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Trump has a longstanding mistrust of mail-in voting and recently admitted he is actively trying to keep Democrats from getting funding for the measure, which would be used to help increase the use of mail-in ballots. During an appearance on the Fox Business Network show Mornings with Maria, Trump began speaking about the stimulus bill negotiations and blamed the Democrats for holding up the bill by wanting universal mail-in voting. “It’s their fault. They want $3.5 billion for something that’s fraudulent,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo. “For the mail-in votes, universal mail-in ballots.”
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BREAKING: After a day of railing against mail-in voting, Trump has requested a mail-in ballot for Florida’s primary.
Note: Trump has no residential address in Florida, and has been fraudulently claiming to live at Mar-a-Lago, a business. https://t.co/ZipkIbgSKj
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) August 14, 2020
He continued: “They want $25 billion for the post office. They need that money so it can work and they can take these millions and millions of ballots. […] But if they don’t get those two items, then they can’t have mail-in ballots.” Trump later posited, “How would you like to have $3.5 billion for mail-in voting? You know how much money that is? They want $25 billion for the post office because the post office is going to have to go to town to get these ridiculous ballots in.”
The former NBC reality TV star then made the eyebrow-raising comment that has caught the attention of many. “If we don’t make a deal, that means they won’t get the money and they won’t have universal mail-in voting.”
This specific comment is being cited as proof that Trump plans to take his war on mail-in ballots to a new level, and that his opposition to additional financing for the U.S. Postal Service is directly connected. Shortly after the new interview, it was reported that a number of USPS facilities have been removing crucial mail-sorting equipment and that USPS dropbox are being removed in mass quantities.
