Donald Trump spent the early hours of the morning, and then doubled back again in the middle of the day, pushing an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that Democrats are “cheating” in California elections as ballots continue to be counted.
It started just after 1 a.m. ET on Truth Social, where Trump lashed out over the pace of vote counting in California’s governor’s race and Los Angeles mayoral primary, suggesting—without evidence—that mail-in ballots were being used to “steal” the results.
“The Dumocrats are at it again!” he wrote, claiming Republicans were being cheated out of victories as late-arriving ballots were processed.
California election officials, however, were simply doing what they routinely do: counting legally cast mail-in and drop-off ballots, a process that often takes days after Election Day due to the volume of votes.
As of early Thursday, only a portion of ballots had been tallied in both major races, according to election reporting. That slow rollout is standard in California elections and has been for years.
Trump, though, used the incomplete count as fuel for a broader claim of fraud.
“There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California,” he wrote in a follow-up post around 1:05 a.m., adding claims—without providing evidence—that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles was somehow investigating the counting process.
No such confirmed investigation was cited in his posts.
But the late-night posting spree didn’t end there.
Hours later, Trump returned to the same storyline in a midday message posted around 12:30 p.m., escalating his language even further.
“Look what’s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote,” he wrote. “I hope the Republicans are watching so that they can finally pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
The post echoed familiar themes from Trump’s broader political messaging—claims of election theft, attacks on Democrats, and calls for sweeping federal voting legislation—despite no evidence of wrongdoing in the California count.
Election results in the state continue to be processed under its established system. In the governor’s race, Republican Steve Hilton currently leads the field, followed by Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer, according to the Associated Press. Only the top two finishers will advance to the general election.
In the Los Angeles mayoral race, incumbent Karen Bass has already secured a runoff position, while the second advancing candidate remains undecided as ballots are still being counted.
Trump has repeatedly targeted mail-in voting systems and slow-count states like California, often suggesting fraud without evidence when results remain incomplete. He has made similar claims since the 2020 election, despite those allegations being widely rejected by courts and election officials.
California leaders responded swiftly to the latest posts, with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office mocking the remarks online, writing that Trump was “lying about California again” and joking that someone should “take the phone away from grandpa.”
The tone may have been tongue-in-cheek, but the underlying tension is not.
As vote counting continues in California, Trump has once again turned a routine electoral process into a national political flashpoint—first at 1 a.m., and again in the middle of the day.
