December 4, 2023

DELUDED: Trump says California voting is rigged or he’d win by “a lot”

Trump is literally laying the battlefield for a 2024 election loss by declaring California’s elections “rigged” before a single vote is cast.

Otherwise, Trump says, the right Republican — him, of course — would “win by a lot.” Trump lost California by 30 points in 2020, so by his estimation, it must be very, very heavily “rigged.”

Trump said all of this while speaking to a group of MAGAs in California.

In the exact same way that Trump promised that he would “accept a loss if it was a fair election” while also saying that “the only way I can lose is if the election is rigged,” he does all he can to erode the right-wing’s faith in elections, rendering them almost meaningless.

In August of 2020 Trump was prepping the battlefield by screaming about “universal mail-in balloting.”

As if, somehow, it would be utterly impossible to rig an election with just voting booths and poll workers reporting results. He was trying to make the 2020 election as meaningless as possible.

He even floated delaying the 2020 election until “people can vote safely.”

When elections become meaningless, the only way to determine who leads is to fight a war. That is why many have called the January 6th insurrection and attempt to seat the alternate electors a mere warm-up — a practice run — for the real battle ahead.

It also easily explains why Trump uses so many war metaphors in his speeches.

He always references 2024 as “The Final Battle,” as if 2028 will never come. In Trump’s mind, he does see it as the final battle because he is ready to battle — and if he wins that battle, there won’t be a meaningful election in 2028.

Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley — who understands the threat Trump poses, says that the military does not swear allegiance to a “wanna-be dictator,” an unequivocal shot at Trump. (Milley was also recently quoted as saying that on Biden’s Inauguration Day, “no one had a bigger smile that day than me.”)

Here is a clip with just a minute of Trump ranting about how he would win California if the elections were actually fair.

So, Trump declares that he’d win “by a lot” if California weren’t rigged. At that point, you drop your head and wonder how there is any way to get through 2024 and 2025 without a violent insurgency. It is both funny and terrifying.

Because one of two things is guaranteed.

Either Joe Biden will win — and hopefully fairly easily — and then we face an angrier, even more brainwashed MAGA “army” (which they’ll eventually get around to calling themselves), armed to the teeth. They will then likely wage a guerilla insurgency with no one organized military force, just hit and run tactics by small groups leaving their so-called “enemies” dead.

Or, Trump will win his “Final Battle,” at which point he will become the MAGAs’ “retribution.” (He will actually only be getting personal revenge, but he can’t say that out loud.)

It was General Milley who said in a recent article in The Atlantic that “Trump will just start throwing people in jail and I’ll be at the top of the list.”

Trump would likely immediately invoke the Insurrection Act — probably based on the situation at the border, and he’s promised to send the military into cities until law and order is restored in full dictatorial mode.

It would be a military takeover — if the military will follow the order. Rest assured that, if they don’t, Trump will fire people until he finds someone who will do what he says.

It sounds so pessimistic. It is possible that there won’t be “much” violence if Biden is reelected, even though Trump will be raging.

Because if he’s already declared that he would win California if it wasn’t rigged, he’s declaring the meaninglessness of the United States’ election-based system of government — aka the Constitution — unless a MAGA wins.

So, even though there’s a temptation to laugh at Trump saying he’d win California if it wasn’t rigged, it’s actually the opposite of funny.

He is preparing the battlefield. He is doing it purposefully.

The only “legitimate” justification for a coup is to stop the “cheaters” and make things “fair” again and that’s the current Trump theme. It has happened throughout history, and now the GOP has found the right guy to stomp the Democrats out forever.

I’ll give the last word to one of the last “responsible” Republicans because if Trump is ever in power again, he sure won’t make this mistake.

I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and on X @JasonMiciak.

Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.

Jason Miciak

Jason Miciak is an associate editor and opinion writer for Occupy Democrats. He's a Canadian-American who grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He is a trained attorney, but for the last five years, he's devoted his time to writing political news and analysis. He enjoys life on the Gulf Coast as a single dad to a 15-year-old daughter. Hobbies include flower pots, cooking, and doing what his daughter tells him they're doing. Sign up to get all of my posts by email right here: