Trump again makes baseless claim of California election fraud

Justine McDaniel, Los Angeles Times on Jun 8, 2026

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump amplified baseless claims of election fraud in California early Monday morning, pointing to the most recent Los Angeles mayoral results as alleged evidence of a cheating narrative he began pushing days ago.

Trump declared early Monday morning on Truth Social that there was “no way” Democrat Nithya Raman could have secured the second spot in the L.A. mayoral primary over Republican Spencer Pratt, writing: “Rigged Election!”

Though Raman has taken a lead over Pratt, The Associated Press had not called the primary’s second winner as of Monday morning. Trump was responding to a post from Decision Desk HQ, which projected Raman as the winner on Sunday evening. He reposted a post from Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., who used the projection of Raman’s win to call for the federalization of elections.

Late Sunday night, Trump also sought to cast doubt on the integrity of California’s election in a post that labeled it “CROOKED.”

“Two great Republican Candidates are being cheated, and so is America, which if the Dumocrats are able to fulfill their mission, great trouble and consternation will follow. Watch this ‘Election’ closely!!!” Trump wrote in an 11 p.m. post.

Trump did not provide evidence for those claims. Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times fact-checked an inaccurate claim of election fraud in the mayoral race spread in conservative online spaces after a lag in an electronic update of voting data published by AP caused confusion.

Because California’s ballot count takes time, one candidate can appear to be in the lead, as Pratt initially did, before another overtakes them once more votes are in, as Raman has.

Trump and his allies have used that feature of the state’s elections process to allege cheating. The day after the election, Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats were trying to “steal” the gubernatorial and L.A. mayoral primaries. The next day, he alleged that California Democrats had “found” mail-in ballots and were “rigging the election” with them.

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(Los Angeles Times staff writer Kevin Rector contributed to this report.)