Trump explains why he voted by mail in the Florida election: ‘Because I’m the president’
Just days after calling mail-in voting “mail fraud,” President Donald Trump on Thursday explained why he decided to vote by mail in Florida’s recent special election.
“You know what, because I’m the president of the United States, and because I’m the president of the United States, I voted by mail in the election in Florida,” he told reporters at a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
“I decided to vote by post because I couldn’t be there, because I have a lot of different things,” he added.
Early voting was available for Florida’s House District 87 special election from March 14 to March 22 at two locations in Palm Beach County, including weekends, an employee of the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office confirmed to NBC News by phone Thursday.
Trump spent the second weekend of early voting, March 20 to March 22, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. He was on his golf course that weekend.
On Tuesday, the actual day of the election, Trump hosted a swearing-in ceremony for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin at the White House. He also participated in many policy meetings, according to his public schedule.
As recently as Monday, Trump again criticized the practice of voting by mail.
“Voting by mail means cheating by mail. I call it cheating by mail,” he said during a crime reduction rally in Memphis, Tennessee.
The president has long attacked voter turnouts, often claiming, without evidence, that they cause election fraud.
In 2020, Trump also agreed to vote by mail, saying when he did so, “Because I’m allowed to.”
“There is a big difference between someone who is not under the government and who votes and everything is closed and verified and everything else,” he said at the time. “I think postal voting is a very bad thing. I think if you vote, you should go.”
Thursday’s comments come amid Trump’s push to pass a major election reform bill in Congress called the SAVE America Act. It won’t end voting by mail, even though Trump has suggested in public opinion that it will.
In an essay on Public Truth Sunday, the president urged Republicans not to make a deal with Democrats to end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, “Unless it includes their approval of Voter ID, (with a photo!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-in Voting (except), All Paper Ballots, No Men in Women’s Sports, and No Transgender for our Precious Children.
In his remarks at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, the president explained that his vote-by-mail in this week’s election qualified as “unique.”
“You know, we have an exception for mail-in votes? You know that, right?” Trump said.
“So, if you’re away, we have something different. If you’re in the military, we have something different. If you’re on a business trip, we have something different. If you’re disabled, we have something different. And if you’re sick, if you’re not feeling well. So I wasn’t particularly in Washington, DC, so I used email to supplement voting.
On Monday, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said it was “not an issue” that Trump voted by mail.
“As President Trump has said, the SAVE America Act has exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, war, or travel — but mail-in voting worldwide should not be allowed because it is at high risk of fraud,” he said in a statement to NBC News. “As everyone knows, the President is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in the elections in Florida, but it is obvious that he lives in the White House in Washington, DC”
In Tuesday’s special election, Democrat Emily Gregory flipped the statehouse district from Republicans to Democrats, defeating Republican Jon Maples, who was endorsed by Trump.
