Trump backtracks and begs Republicans to vote by mail as Democrats’ odds of taking Congress improve

By Jen Rice

President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Washington. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP)

President Donald Trump took a break this weekend from his nonstop, baseless accusations about mail voting fraud to remind his own supporters to cast their mail ballots in this year’s midterm elections. 

In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump wrote: “Republicans must WIN the 2026 Midterm Elections, and we must use every appropriate tool — Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail, or in-person, we must ‘swamp’ the Radical Left Dumocrats with massive turnout! SO IMPORTANT — PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

This isn’t the first time Trump has reversed himself on mail voting. Though he constantly claims without evidence that mail voting is rife with fraud, Trump also encouraged his supporters to vote by mail in 2024. Trump himself frequently votes by mail.

Trump’s latest demand that Republicans vote – even by mail – comes as polls show Democrats’ odds of taking both the House and Senate are improving. Ironically, Trump now wants Republicans to vote by mail even as their trust in the U.S. Postal Service has plummeted, echoing Trump’s claims that mail ballots are more fraudulent.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to throw mail voting into chaos this year, blocking a plan that would have given the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) unheard of authority to restrict and reject mail ballots. 

Democrats tend to vote by mail more than Republicans. In 2024, 37% of Democrats and 24% of Republicans reported voting by mail, according to analysis from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Election Data and Science Lab.

The Trump administration offered no evidence that its mail voting restrictions were necessary. But his unsubstantiated claims of mail voting fraud did find two sympathetic listeners on the Supreme Court.

In a dissent, Justice Samuel Alito wrote approvingly of the Trump administration’s mail voting attack, concluding that “implementing it will also ‘enhance the visibility of Federal Ballot Mail’ in order to better detect election fraud.” Justice Clarence Thomas joined the dissent.