Donald Trump insisted in a rambling interview with television host Dr. Phil McGraw on Tuesday that he had indeed won California, adding that all he needed was an “honest vote counter” – for God’s sake, to be precise.
“If Jesus Christ came down and counted the votes, I would win California, OK?” Trump said. “In other words, if we had an honest vote counter, a really honest vote counter – I’m doing great with the Hispanics, great, I mean, at a level that no Republican has ever reached – but if we had an honest vote counter, I would win California.”
Dr. Phil sounded surprised and replied, “You think so?”
“Oh, I think so,” Trump said. “I see it. I walk around California, there are Trump signs everywhere… It’s a very dishonest (state), everything is mailed in. They send out 38 million ballots, I think,” Trump continued, launching into a monologue about how dishonest California is.
“There is massive electoral fraud in every postal vote,” he added.
During their conversation, Dr. Phil also asked the former president about his comments at a gathering of Christians last month, when he said they “won’t have to vote again” after 2024.
Trump stressed that he was not saying he would stop the elections.
“That doesn’t mean there won’t be an election. There will be an election. But this time you have to vote because we have to win,” Trump said when McGraw pressed him on the issue, claiming he would “fix everything in less than four years, and fix it by a lot.”
“Christians don’t vote very much for some reason – you know, proportionally,” Trump claimed, without providing evidence. “NRA people and people who care a lot about the Second Amendment – those are not voters. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s a rebellious streak.”
McGraw, who had still held Trump in high regard in the summer, followed up: “So you didn’t mean, ‘Vote for me once, because I’m never leaving again?’ You meant, ‘This is an important issue. Will you vote this time?'”
Trump confirmed this. “Of course I meant it that way,” he said, claiming that “everyone” knew what he meant at the time.
Nevertheless, many Democrats objected to Trump’s initial comment.
“This year, democracy is on the ballot, and if we want to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism. Here Trump helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again,” California Rep. Adam Schiff wrote on X.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, argued that Trump was “about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sown so much division and even led to an assassination attempt.”
Later in his interview with McGraw, Trump also defended his statement to Fox News host Sean Hannity that he would be a “dictator” – “but only on day one” – and complained that it had been taken out of context.
“It was said with a chuckle. The audience laughed, I laughed, we all laughed. But they take it and cut it,” he said. “We’re dealing with very dishonest people.”
During that exchange with Hannity last December, Trump was given the opportunity to rule out breaking the law if he were re-elected, but he refused to do so.
