Trump Renews 'Rigged Election' Claims About California After Walking Out of NBC Interview

Today’s Focus

President Donald Trump on Monday repeated his claim that California’s elections are “rigged,” posting on Truth Social a screenshot of Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) asserting that the state is “incapable of running free and fair elections,” according to The Guardian.

The post pointed to Decision Desk HQ’s projection that Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman had overtaken reality TV personality Spencer Pratt for the second runoff slot in the nonpartisan Los Angeles mayoral primary, as reported by The New York Times. “No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!” Trump wrote.

The Truth Social post followed Trump’s exit from an NBC News Meet the Press interview that aired Sunday. Host Kristen Welker pressed him for evidence after he described the California gubernatorial primary count as fraudulent, The Guardian reported.

Trump told Welker the count was suspect because “it’s four days and they aren’t even close to counting” all ballots. Welker responded that California’s extended tabulation timeline is standard under state law.

When Welker asked again for evidence, Trump called her “crooked” and later “stupid,” then removed his microphone. “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” he said, according to NBC’s transcript cited by The Guardian.

California allows county election officials to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day for up to seven days after polls close, and to spend nearly a month certifying results, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.

Raman, a progressive Democrat, was trailing Pratt earlier in the week before later-counted ballots shifted the race, The New York Times reported. Hamadeh, a Republican who lost his own 2022 Arizona attorney general race by 280 votes and contested the result, has been one of the loudest congressional voices echoing Trump’s claims about California.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Trump allies contend the slow pace of California’s count itself erodes public confidence, regardless of whether each ballot is legitimate. Hamadeh argued on X, in the post Trump amplified, that California is “incapable of running free and fair elections consistent with our constitution.”

Conservative commentators have long pointed to late ballot shifts, sometimes called the “blue shift,” as a reason to demand faster tabulation. The Heritage Foundation’s election-integrity project has urged states to shorten mail-ballot deadlines and require Election Day reporting, arguing that delays invite suspicion even when no fraud occurs.

Trump and his supporters also note that Republicans have struggled badly in California statewide races, and they frame mail-in voting expansion as a structural advantage for Democrats. On Meet the Press, Trump told Welker the system was designed so “Democrats win,” according to The Guardian’s account.

Backers of the president’s broader argument say a sitting president has standing to question election procedures publicly, and that pressure from the White House has historically prompted states to tighten rules. They point to post-2020 reforms in Georgia and Texas as evidence that scrutiny produces change.

Critics argue

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and county registrars have repeatedly stated there is no evidence of fraud in the state’s primaries, and that the long count reflects ballot verification required by law, The Guardian reported.

Democratic officials argue Trump’s pattern of rejecting results he dislikes, including the 2020 election he lost, is the actual threat to confidence. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) have each said the president is laying groundwork to contest 2026 midterm losses in advance.

Legal scholars who studied the post-2020 challenges note that more than 60 lawsuits filed by Trump’s team failed in court, including before judges he appointed. They argue continued “rigged” claims without evidence meet the definition of disinformation rather than oversight.

Press-freedom groups also criticized Trump’s treatment of Welker. PEN America said walking out of an interview after a follow-up question is “an attempt to make accountability journalism impossible,” in a statement cited by The Guardian.

What the experts say

Nonpartisan election researchers describe California’s extended count as a function of scale and statute, not malfunction. Charles Stewart III, director of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, has written that states allowing post-Election Day mail-ballot receipt routinely report results over two to four weeks, and that the pattern is predictable and observable in advance.

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law has documented that audits in jurisdictions including California, Georgia, and Arizona after 2020 found discrepancies in the range of hundredths of a percent, far below any margin that could alter outcomes.

A 2021 Associated Press review of every potential voter-fraud case in the six battleground states Trump disputed found fewer than 475 cases out of more than 25 million votes cast, an error rate too small to flip a single state.

Pew Research Center surveys have tracked a sharp partisan divide on election confidence since 2020, with Republican trust in vote counts dropping more than 40 points while Democratic trust rose. Political scientist Rick Hasen of UCLA has argued that elite cues, especially from presidents, are the strongest single driver of that gap.

By the Numbers

4: days after California’s June primary that Trump called the count “rigged,” per The Guardian.

7: days after Election Day that California law allows postmarked mail ballots to arrive and still count, according to the California Secretary of State.

280: votes by which Rep. Abe Hamadeh lost his 2022 Arizona attorney general race, per AP.

60+: post-2020 election lawsuits filed by Trump’s team that failed in court, according to the Brennan Center.

475: potential voter-fraud cases AP identified across six 2020 battleground states out of more than 25 million votes cast.

40+ points: drop in Republican confidence in vote counts since 2020, per Pew Research Center.

2: spots in the Los Angeles mayoral runoff, with Nithya Raman projected to take the second, per The New York Times.