Trump is using election lies to lay the groundwork for challenging the results in 2024 if he loses

NEW YORK (AP) – Donald Trump has spent months laying the groundwork to challenge the results of the 2024 election if he loses — just as he did four years ago.

At rally after rally, he urges his supporters to engineer a victory “too big to be rigged,” telling them that he can only lose if Democrats cheat. He repeatedly refused to say whether he would accept the results regardless of the outcome. And he has claimed that fraud is already underway, citing debunked claims or outrageous theories that have no basis in reality.

“The only thing that can stop us is cheating. It’s the only thing that can stop us,” he said at an event in Arizona late Thursday night.

In 2020, Trump prematurely declared victory from the White House. He launched a legal and political effort to make up for his defeat against Democrat Joe Biden, which culminated in this Storming of the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.

Democrats fear he could do the same thing this year before the race is called. He did not respond to a question about those Democratic concerns Friday in Dearborn, Michigan, but instead attacked Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has made election lies the focus of his 2024 campaign while also feverishly warning about fraud promises to retaliate against people who stand in his way.

This year, he is backed by a sophisticated “election integrity” operation built by his campaign and the Republican National Committee that has already filed more than 130 lawsuits and enlisted more than 230,000 volunteers to serve as poll watchers and poll workers across the board Country will be trained country on election day.

Here's a look at Trump's strategy for sowing doubt in this year's election and the facts behind each claim.

Voting for non-citizens

THE CLAIM: Trump claimed without evidencethat Democrats allowed millions of migrants to enter the country illegally so they could register to vote. In one Interview with Newsmax in SeptemberTrump claimed such efforts were already underway.

“They are working overtime trying to illegally force people to vote,” he claimed. “They're working overtime to sign up and register people – many of the same people you just see coming across the border. That’s probably their original thought, because why else would they want to destroy our country?”

THE FACTS: It takes years for newcomers to become citizens, and only citizens can legally vote in federal elections. There are isolated cases where non-citizens have been caught attempting to vote a University of Michigan student from China were arrested for allegedly illegal voting – do not reflect a larger conspiracy.

Research has shown that non-citizens are registering and voting illegally is extremely rare and usually by accident.

Ballots abroad

THE CLAIM: Trump has suggested that Democrats' efforts to secure the votes of Americans living abroad present another opportunity for fraud. He is accused of “preparing to FRAUD!” and “wanting to dilute the TRUE vote of our wonderful military men and women and their families.”

THE FACTS: The former president himself campaigned for the votes of Americans abroad, promises an end so-called “double taxation” for individuals who frequently pay taxes both in the country in which they reside and to the U.S. government.

Ominous warnings

THE CLAIM: Trump has begun to suggest that Harris may have access to some kind of secret insider information about the outcome of a race that has yet to be decided.

Since taking a day off to do interviews with Telemundo and NBC, the vice president has repeatedly suggested, “Maybe she knows something we don't.”

Last weekend in Michigan, he suggested that there was no way Harris would run with Beyoncé – one of the biggest stars in the world – if the race really was as close as polls suggest.

“First of all, they cheat like hell. “So maybe they know something we don’t know, right?” he said. “Maybe they know something we don’t know, I don’t know. Why the hell would she celebrate when you're down? Maybe – I never thought of it – maybe she knows something we don't. But we won’t allow it.”

THE FACTS: There is no evidence of a Democratic conspiracy. In fact, at a rally at New York's Madison Square Garden, Trump stoked fears about his own internal planning when he looked at House Speaker Mike Johnson and talked about a “little secret” they had.

Johnson, before he became speaker, took the lead in drafting a broad brief aimed at reversing Trump's loss in 2020, and repeated some of the wilder conspiracy theories to explain his loss.

When asked about Trump's reference to a “little secret,” Johnson made a statement that included: “By definition, a secret is not to be shared – and I have no intention of sharing it.” (He later told an audience That it was “one of our voter turnout tactics,” according to The Hill. Trump's campaign released a statement saying he had “conducted countless telerallies” to bolster the Republican majority in Congress.

We turn to Pennsylvania

THE CLAIM: Trump in recent days has focused his ire on Pennsylvania, a state that both campaigns view as critical and where he says fraud is already underway.

earlier this weekHe claimed that York County, Pennsylvania received “THUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT voter registration forms and absentee ballot applications from a third-party group.” He also pointed to Lancaster County, where he said “2,600 fraudulent ballots and forms were caught, all written by the same person.” Really bad 'stuff'.”

During a campaign rally in Allentown on Tuesday, the former president said: “They've already started cheating in Lancaster. They cheated. We got her by 2,600 votes. No, we caught her cold. 2,600 votes. Think about it, think about it. And every vote was written by the same person.”

THE FACTS: In Lancaster, District Attorney Heather Adams, an elected Republican, said poll workers raised concerns about two groups Voter Registration Applications due to what she described as numerous similarities. In total, officials are currently checking around 2,500 forms.

To be clear, Lancaster reviews voter registration applications, not “votes.” Lancaster officials said some forms contained false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses or other problematic details, but did not say they were all written by the same person.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monskie confirmed this week that his county is reviewing suspicious person forms. County Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a statement saying voter registration forms and absentee ballot applications were part of a “large shipment of thousands of election-related materials” that the county elections office received from a third-party organization.

State officials say the discovery and investigation of the applications — not the votes — is evidence that the system is working as it should.

Threats of prosecution

THE CLAIM: Trump has threatened serious consequences for those who engage in what he called “unconscionable behavior.”

In a social media post falsely citing “the Democrats' rampant scams and fraud attempts in the 2020 presidential election,” he warned, “If I win, the people who cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” the law that provides for long-term prison sentences.”

The posts continue to threaten “those who engage in unscrupulous behavior,” including election officials, lawyers and donors, who he says will be “searched for, caught and prosecuted on a scale that unfortunately still exists in our country.” has never taken place before.”

THE FACTS: Judges, election officials, and even Trump's own Attorney General William Barr all have confirmed that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

If re-elected, Trump has vowed to crack down on rivals he sees as “domestic enemies” and said, among other things, that he would appoint a special prosecutor to target Biden. This is more than a theoretical threat, considering that Trump repeatedly pushed for investigations against perceived political opponents during his time as president.

While the Justice Department has controls in place to guard against political interference, Trump could appoint executives who would make it easier to open cases at his behest.

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Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Adriana Gomez Licon in Dearborn, Mich., and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.