Trump’s Voter Fraud Movie Is Back — The Sequel No One Asked For

Hitting theaters this summer! The Trump Twist You Can’t Miss! Get Your Tickets Now!

Ugh. Here we go again.

We’ve seen this movie before. The credits haven’t changed. Neither has the ending. The ballot box office poison is back and this time he has his fangs in Cali.

Spencer Pratt, the MAGA coded reality TV castoff, and the candidate some conservatives somehow convinced themselves could win the mayoralty of one of the bluest cities in America — is out of the Los Angeles mayor’s race.

Pssst… here’s a clue to consider —  LA hasn’t elected a Republican as mayor since 1997. That’s nearly 30 years for those playing at home.

Another fun fact for the delusional deniers: Democrats outnumber Republicans in the City by nearly two million registered voters. Republicans account for under 15 percent of the city’s electorate. And yet, when the math caught up with Pratt as mail ballots rolled in, Trump did what Trump does when he can’t have his way, he declared the whole thing “Rigged!” Gurl, please. Sit down. 

Let’s just stop there, because honestly, you have to. It’s always voter fraud when Democrats win. There never seems to be any when Republicans win. Not when Steve Hilton — Trump’s own pick for governor — finished first on election night and nobody cried foul. The fraud is so surgically precise it only strikes the races MAGA loses. Give me a break. This played out story line only serves to reinforce how much of the plot doddering Donny has lost.

We’ll go on. But that point alone should end the argument.

Pratt never had a prayer. Rick Caruso, a serious candidate, ran the same playbook in 2022 — homelessness, crime, Bass is failing — spent over $100 million of his own money and he still lost by 10 points. Pratt had D-list celebrity (and that’s being generous) and a MAGA co-sign. What the dude didn’t have was the votes. And let’s not forget the “heartbreak” videos from his fire-destroyed Palisades home while actually staying at the Hotel Bel-Air. TMZ nailed him. His outrage over the fires was legit and shared by many. What wasn’t was his sacrifice. That was just more of the same – performative politics.

Face it folks. If we’ve learned one thing by now it’s this: The red mirage is real. California is no different. They send mail ballots to every registered voter. More Dems then Republicans usually use them. I’m a Democrat who has voted by mail only once — in 2004 because I knew I would be out of the country on election day. Short of something physically preventing me from voting in person, on election day, I will never vote by mail. Not because I believe there is some grand conspiracy — simply because I like casting my vote in person. There’s something rewarding about it. My husband, not so much, especially not for off-year elections. He votes by mail. Is he rigging the election? Doubtful.

We’ve seen it before, we’ll see it again: Republican candidates look strong on election night — then the mail comes in. Every time. Like clockwork. This is not a secret. It is not a scandal. It’s California.

Even we got caught in it. The AP reported 89 percent of ballots were counted in our own backyard — the SD-24 state senate race — the morning after election night. Based on that, we reported Goldsmith and Marshall looked like they were the two headed to the runoff and Erickson was out. Then the AP corrected the number to 60 percent. We corrected our story. Erickson now leads that race. You update, you move on. That’s journalism. That’s sanity. Two things Trump seems constitutionally incapable of.

Here’s a tell. Steve Hilton — Trump’s own guy — finished first on election night in the governor’s race. You didn’t hear a word about fraud. Not one post. Funny how that works. The fraud is only visible when MAGA loses.

This isn’t about Pratt. California will hand Democrats a wave of wins in November as late mail ballots do exactly what they always do. Trump is laying the groundwork right now to call all of it stolen. Los Angeles was just the opening act.

There’s definitely a legitimate conversation to be had here. California’s process takes too long. Weeks of uncertainty after election day is genuinely bad for public confidence — including this editor’s. Not because the election is stolen, but because there has to be a better way to ensure everyone has faith in the result. Case in point: we received two mail ballots for the previous owners of our home — people who haven’t lived here in 13 years. Odd? Yes. Evidence of widespread voter fraud? Not even close. Even multiplied by hundreds or thousands, it still requires a full criminal conspiracy — forged signatures, processing center workers across an entire county and state all in on it together. We can all agree Election Day should mean something. Reforms that speed up processing without disenfranchising voters are worth pursuing. Even Hilton, Trump’s own pick, called for changes — more early voting, Election Day as a holiday, mail ballots by request — without alleging fraud. Now that’s a rational position. That’s how adults debate election policy.

What is not rational is a big baby crying fraud with zero proof. Since 2020, Trump and his minions have brought hundreds of cases before judges — many of them Republican-appointed, we might add — and lost virtually every single one. Not because of a deep state conspiracy. Because there was no evidence.

Here’s another fun fact election deniers and MAGA meatheads aren’t gonna like: of all voter fraud convictions between 2016 and 2020 where political affiliation was known, 41 percent were Republicans — slightly more than the 39 percent who were Democrats. There’s no denying both parties have bad actors. A California Democrat city councilman in Lodi was hit with 14 felony counts for registration fraud in his 2020 race. A former Indiana Democratic county party chairman was convicted for fraudulently claiming residency to vote in 2022. An Iowa woman was convicted on 52 counts of ballot fraud — stuffing ballots to help her husband win a Republican congressional primary.

The sh*t happens on both sides. Anyone with rational reasoning skills understands this. The point: it gets caught. It gets prosecuted. That’s how the system is supposed to work.

What it doesn’t do is swing a statewide election. Or even a mayoral race in a city of millions.

So, once again, where’s the proof of the massive coordinated Democratic fraud machine? We’ve been waiting since 2020. Hundreds of cases brought before judges — many of them Republican-appointed — and still nothing. Still waiting.

Spencer Pratt lost because more LA voters didn’t want him than did. He raised some valid points and spoke to many who share his concerns. But Nithya Raman has more votes. That’s democracy. California counts votes carefully, slowly, and legally. Slow isn’t stolen. And “I don’t like the result” isn’t evidence — no matter how many times you storm off Meet the Press.

The proof of widespread fraud never comes. It never does. But the damage to public trust will be done long before November — which, of course, is the whole point.

The bad summer sequel no one asked for is hitting the ballot box office right on schedule. Coming this fall — same director, same script, same evidence — Rigged: Part 3.