President Trump makes stuff up. He’s like that guy at a party who just becomes so ridiculous that you chuckle about it for days. Except, of course, Trump is the President of the United States.
In an interview with the Daily Caller today, Trump claimed people commit voter fraud by casting a ballot, returning to their cars to change clothes, and then going back to polling places in disguise to cast additional ballots.
“The Republicans don’t win and that’s because of potentially illegal votes,” Trump said. “When people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles. Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again. Nobody takes anything. It’s really a disgrace what’s going on.”
Suffice it to say Trump didn’t present any evidence for his claim. He can’t, because voter fraud is exceedingly rare.
And the irony is that Republicans, in a vast majority of states including the battlegrounds of Ohio and Florida, are in charge of elections.
If this type of fraud was happening, these Republican officials would be on Fox News every hour of the day.
But they aren’t, because it isn’t.
In early 2017, the Brennan Center for Justice pegged voter impersonation rates at “between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent” — meaning a typical American is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit the type of fraud Trump has in mind.
This table by Vox — put together days after Trump’s inauguration, when he was pushing claims about fraud in the 2016 election — gives you a sense of how rare credible voter fraud accusations are.
In another part of the Daily Caller interview, Trump made a case for a national voter ID law that would purportedly solve the problem of voter impersonation.
“If you buy a box of cereal — you have a voter ID,” he said. “They try to shame everybody by calling them racist, or calling them something, anything they can think of, when you say you want voter ID. But voter ID is a very important thing.”
As anybody who has been to a grocery store can attest, you do not need an ID card to buy cereal. But, honestly, how would Trump know?
Predictably, social media has had a field day with Trump’s latest.
This again? Trump says people need ID to buy cereal? Gramps at the Thanksgiving table, Take Two.
— Roz Cundell (@roz5678) November 14, 2018
If buying cereal registers you to vote, Trump must have thought Ted Cruz was Count Chocula.
— Michael Furburger (@FurburgerMayor) November 14, 2018
Just got back from the store. Apparently Trump has new rule that I have to have #VoterID to buy cereal. Kids are pissed.??
— Now! Solar (@NOW1SOLAR) November 14, 2018
What…what kind of cereal is Trump eating? https://t.co/mqaBOJ3BDf
— Eli Savit (@EliNSavit) November 14, 2018
Trump's never bought a box of cereal. Now we know.
— Cecilia (@Cechase) November 14, 2018
In Trump's world you need to an I.D. to buy cereal, but don't need to release your taxes to run for president.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) November 14, 2018
I really wanna know when Trump last went to a store and bought a box of cereal. I'm guessing it was during the Ford administration. https://t.co/60DyoTkerF
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 14, 2018
Trump is right about cereal boxes and voting. I voted in this 1976 election with a cereal box ballot… and I was only 11. pic.twitter.com/tpKBGotzK3
— Williamson Rhoads (@nokersince67) November 14, 2018
There's out of touch politicians, and then there's Trump repeatedly insisting that you need a state-issued ID to purchase a box of cereal. https://t.co/9qdGDN7Lzc
— Gravy Crockett (@BostonJerry) November 14, 2018