{"id":49273,"date":"2026-07-19T21:58:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49273"},"modified":"2026-07-19T21:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:58:50","slug":"the-presidents-election-claims-undermine-his-own-victories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/the-presidents-election-claims-undermine-his-own-victories\/","title":{"rendered":"The president\u2019s election claims undermine his own victories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Marc%20Sandalow\">By Marc Sandalow | Special to The Examiner<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>17 hrs ago. (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/d\/c8\/dc807eb2-7f9c-4460-bb95-98b97374d0db\/6a5ab23be353b.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"APTOPIX Trump Speech\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>In a Thursday-night prime-time speech, President Donald Trump called U.S. elections \u201ccatastrophically\u201d vulnerable to manipulation and \u201cworse than any Third World country.\u201d<\/em><em>Saul Loeb\/AFP pool via AP<\/em><em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you take President Donald Trump at his word, there is good reason to doubt that he was legitimately elected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s the inescapable conclusion from Trump\u2019s prime-time speech Thursday regarding U.S. elections, which he called \u201ccatastrophically\u201d vulnerable to manipulation and \u201cworse than any Third World country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump declassified evidence that purportedly shows American democracy is jeopardized by foreign manipulation and voter fraud. As one example of the \u201cinsanity,\u201d as he called it, he pointed to California\u2019s June 2 primary, which took a month to certify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wonder what they were doing,\u201d he said, insinuating that cheating was the likely explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Trump\u2019s mind, this is all evidence that the election he lost to Joe Biden in 2020 was rigged. After all, he is a winner \u2014 so if he didn\u2019t come out on top, it must be that others cheated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But vulnerability is not proof that cheating occurred. The evidence released by the White House didn\u2019t establish that a single vote was changed or illegally cast. Instead, it suggested that the system has multiple weak spots that make it susceptible to such mischief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voting machines, he asserted, are \u201cvulnerable and they\u2019re easily compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe judge that the United States\u2019 adversaries \u2014 including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, as well as non-state groups \u2014 have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If adversaries manipulated the election Trump lost in 2020, why should anyone assume they did not manipulate the elections he won in 2016 and 2024?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s what makes the logic of last week\u2019s speech so remarkable \u2014 the man who won two of the last three presidential elections is making the case that election results can\u2019t be trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It makes no sense that U.S. adversaries would have intervened in 2020 but stayed out of the other two elections. In fact, the only hard evidence of actual interference comes from Trump\u2019s first victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ex \/\/ Top Stories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/technology\/openai-faces-another-bitter-battle-now-with-apple\/article_3e2b89e1-a3e7-495f-a156-29117b9acc29.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">OpenAI preps for what could be another bitter battle \u2014 this time, with Apple<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The iPhone maker has charged the San Francisco AI giant with stealing its trade secrets. Don\u2019t expect a quick resolution, legal experts say<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/community\/board-of-supervisors-approves-creation-of-sf-cannabis-cafes\/article_099fed86-3445-4b6b-92c6-3f0a52667d4f.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">Board of Supervisors approves creation of SF cannabis cafes<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>New legislation by Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman is making a new revenue stream for legal retailers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/community\/packed-calendar-helps-sf-residents-get-through-no-sky-july\/article_67c8c32e-22a5-49c0-a848-a3016e8a3b86.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">These SF events will help you break through \u2018no-sky July\u2019<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Over seven days, The City will welcome a night market celebrating South Asian culture, an international art-book fair and Danny DeVito<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A two-year investigation into the 2016 presidential election by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia \u201cinterfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,\u201d to help Trump win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it found insufficient evidence to prove that Trump coordinated with the Russians or \u201ccommitted a crime, it also does not exonerate him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump is right when he says that threats to American democracy should be a commander-in-chief\u2019s primary concern. But more telling than his warnings are his proposed solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump did not call for restoring the $10 million he cut from a program to enhance election protection against hacking. Nor did he rush to replace the two people he fired earlier in the week from the Election Assistance Commission, leaving the agency that oversees election standards without members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, he called on Congress to pass the SAVE Act, a Republican bill that would do away with most mail-in ballots and require proof of citizenship to register to vote, provisions that appear aimed at reducing Democratic Party turnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forcing the nine out of 10 San Franciscans who currently cast ballots by mail to vote in-person in the future will do nothing to minimize the catastrophic risks to American democracy that Trump describes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many believe Trump\u2019s fixation on the 2020 election springs from his inability to accept his rejection by more than 81 million voters. Others, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have portrayed it as a cynical manipulation aimed at stirring doubts about the process in the event that the 2026 midterm elections produce results he doesn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both explanations are disturbing. Trump is warning that American elections are perilously vulnerable \u2014 and&nbsp;simultaneously dismantling efforts to protect them. He offers no evidence that voting restrictions would address the threats he describes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Trump, election integrity appears to have less to do with protecting democracy than with ensuring that democracy produces the result he wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Marc Sandalow has been writing about California politics from Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you take President Donald Trump at his word, there is good reason to doubt that he was legitimately elected. That\u2019s the inescapable conclusion from Trump\u2019s prime-time speech Thursday regarding U.S. elections, which he called \u201ccatastrophically\u201d vulnerable to manipulation and \u201cworse than any Third World country.\u201d Trump declassified evidence that&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/19\/the-presidents-election-claims-undermine-his-own-victories\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2088],"tags":[335],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49277,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49273\/revisions\/49277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}