President Donald Trump recently cast a mail ballot in an upcoming Florida special election, according to Palm Beach County records, even as he publicly calls the voting method “cheating.” County records confirm that his mail ballot was received and counted by election officials in Palm Beach County, where he is registered to vote. The records do not specify how the ballot was delivered.
According to NBC News, just this past Monday, Trump stated, “Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it all.” This is a clear contrast to his use of the very system he criticizes.
This is not a new pattern. Trump also voted by mail in 2020 while condemning the practice. When asked about the contradiction back then, he explained, “You know why I voted? Because I happened to be in the White House and I won’t be able to go to Florida and vote.”
Trump supports restricting mail-in voting through the SAVE America Act, but the bill remains stalled in the Senate
He drew a distinction, saying, “There’s a big difference between somebody who is out of state and does a ballot and everything is sealed and certified and everything else.” He then claimed, without evidence, that thousands of people were fraudulently signing ballots in their living rooms. His 2020 ballot was hand-delivered by a third party.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales addressed the president’s mail-in vote, saying, “As President Trump has said, the SAVE America Act has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel, but universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it’s highly susceptible to fraud.
As everyone knows, the President is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections, but he obviously primarily lives at the White House in Washington, D.C. This is a non-story.” Trump has been pushing the SAVE America Act, a large elections overhaul bill in Congress. The bill would add voter ID and documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements to federal elections.
While Trump has suggested the bill would end mail voting, that is not accurate, it would make mail voting more complicated by requiring voters to photocopy their photo IDs alongside their ballots, but it would not eliminate it. The bill currently needs 60 votes to pass in the Senate and remains stalled.
Trump has consistently blamed the expansion of mail-in voting during the 2020 pandemic for his election loss, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud in American elections. In his State of the Union address this year, he said, “no more crooked mail-in ballots” and that “Cheating is rampant in our elections.” He has posted on social media that mail-in voting should only be for “ILLNESS, DISABILITY, MILITARY, OR TRAVEL!”
On Monday in Memphis, Tennessee, Trump repeated a false claim that the US is “the only country that does mail-in voting.” That is not true, at least 32 countries use mail ballots, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
Florida is currently holding state legislative elections to fill vacant seats, including the House district that covers Mar-a-Lago. Trump endorsed Republican Jon Maples against Democrat Emily Gregory, urging people to “get out and vote”. Florida’s political landscape has seen notable activity recently, with Alex Vindman’s unexpected moves in Florida politics drawing attention ahead of these elections.
Since Trump began his second term, Democrats have flipped nine state legislative seats across the country in special elections. Meanwhile, Trump’s foreign policy moves have also made headlines, as the administration’s decision to deploy Marines toward Iran’s oil island continues to escalate tensions in the region.
Published: Mar 24, 2026 06:00 pm