‘Do as I say, not as I do’ Trump votes by mail after calling it a fraud

Donald Trump once again voted by mail in Florida elections despite repeatedly attacking mail-in ballots as “mail-in cheating” and a “scam” that his administration has spent months trying to restrict for millions of Americans.

Records in Palm Beach County , where the president’s primary Mar-a-Lago residence is located, indicate that he requested a mail-in ballot last month to participate in Florida’s Republican primary elections. His ballot was received August 14. Politico first reported his ballot.

Trump has not returned to the Sunshine State since May. He last voted by mail during a special election in March.

But his latest absentee vote follows his administration’s emergency request to the Supreme Court to implement sweeping restrictions on Americans’ access to mail-in ballots, a move that has been repeatedly blocked in court while the president pushes Congress to enact his far-reaching election reform legislation.

“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,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said in a statement shared with The Independent.

“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.,” she said. “This is a non-story.”

Days after casting his ballot by mail in March , Trump described the process as “cheating” during an event in Tennessee.

“Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it all,” he said at the time.

During a July speech , he called mail-in ballots “inherently corrupt.” He used February’s State of the Union Address to demand “no more crooked mail-in ballots.”

In 2024, Trump’s presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee launched “Swamp the Vote” to make up for lost ground on mail-in voting among Republican voters in the aftermath of 2020 elections.

“You need to make a plan, register, and vote any way possible,” Trump said in a statement announcing the plan. Days later, Trump told a crowd at the far-right Turning Point Action conference that early voting is “sad” and “crazy.”

“They start early. You know, it’s sad, when you have to go months early,” he said at the time. “It’s crazy. What are they doing with all these votes? What are they doing?”

“Mail-in voting is totally corrupt,” he told supporters at a rally in Michigan in February that year. “Get that through your head.”

Last week, the Trump administration pressed the Supreme Court for permission to implement new rules that could significantly restrict voters’ access to ballots in midterm elections this fall.