Trump Uses False Voting Claims to Target ‘Democrat Power Center’

Making false claims about illegal voting by noncitizens, President Donald Trump ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target the “core of the Democrat Power Center.”

In a post on Truth Social Sunday evening, Trump told ICE to target “America’s largest cities,” and specifically called out Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, all of which are predominantly led by elected Democrats. 

“These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities,” the president claimed.

The order represents the latest effort by Trump — and perhaps the most dangerous yet — to wield the massive power of the federal government to punish and weaken his political opponents.

It comes amid the Trump administration’s ongoing use of military personnel in Los Angeles in response to protests over its recent aggressive immigration raids in the city. It also came a day after millions of Americans attended “No Kings Day” demonstrations across the country over the weekend to protest his extreme agenda, including his mass deportation efforts. 

Some of the largest protests occurred in the same cities Trump singled out in his order.

In commanding ICE to target Democratic-led cities, Trump repeated election conspiracies about Democrats encouraging undocumented immigrants to vote.

“These, and other such cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens,” Trump claimed.

Illegal voting by noncitizens — and fraud in general — is extremely rare in U.S. elections. 

Trump’s planned assault on Democratic-led cities is likely to disrupt their economies. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told MSNBC Sunday that ICE’s ongoing raids are “creating a sense of fear” in major sectors of Los Angeles’s economy.

“People are afraid to go to work. People are afraid to go to school. People are afraid to go to church,” Bass said. “This has been a real blow to the economy of Los Angeles.”

The directive also builds on an executive order Trump issued in April that called on Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Homeland Security to document “sanctuary cities” that are not complying with his mass deportation agenda.

A coalition of 20 Democratic attorneys general challenged the order in lawsuits after the White House claimed that the government would strip federal transportation and disaster-relief funding away from cities not complying with Trump’s immigration efforts.

Trump’s claims echoed a once-fringe racist conspiracy theory that has now become mainstream in the Republican Party called the Great Replacement Theory. Those who believe in the conspiracy theory baselessly assert that Democrats import non-white immigrants to “replace” white voters to achieve their political agenda.

Trump also said his administration is focused on “remigration,” a term widely used by far-right extremists in Europe to describe efforts to purge the continent of non-white people and eliminate forms of multiculturalism.

“This is what fascism looks like — using a conspiracy theory about a dehumanized outgroup as a pretext for seizing political power and wielding arbitrary authority,” Dartmouth College political scientist Brendan Nyhan said in a social media post. “What you read about in the history books is happening right here, right now.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last week that through its actions in Los Angeles, the Trump administration seeks to wrest control from Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — both Democrats.

“We are not going away,” Noem said during a press conference last week. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

California’s Democratic leaders have challenged Trump’s attempt to federalize the state’s National Guard through an archaic statute and his decision to deploy a Marine battalion to the city.  

A federal judge last week blocked Trump’s seizure of California’s National Guard, calling the move illegal and a “dangerous precedent.” However, a panel of judges for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later temporarily stayed the order. The Ninth Circuit panel is set to hold a hearing on the matter Tuesday, June 17.

Experts told Democracy Docket that Trump’s order federalizing the National Guard is largely limitless in scope, meaning it could be used against any state unless it is blocked by the courts. The order undermines federal law barring the government from using military personnel in civilian law enforcement, experts also warned.

So far, the Trump administration has authorized soldiers to accompany and protect ICE officials on immigration raids and to temporarily detain civilians to “prevent harm.” 

Late last week, the Marines deployed to Los Angeles made their first known detention of a civilian after apprehending a man outside of a federal building. The man later identified himself as a veteran on his way to an office of the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Trump’s order appeared to conflict with ICE’s recent pause on immigration raids at farms, restaurants and hotels after business leaders said deportations were hurting American farmers and the hospitality sector.

Trump did not specify whether businesses in Democratic-led cities would be spared, saying instead that ICE agents must “do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”