NEW YORK (AP) — donald trump He has spent months laying the groundwork to challenge the results of the 2024 election if he loses, just as he did four years ago.

At rally after rally, he urges his followers to achieve a victory “too big to manipulate,” telling them the only way they will lose is if Democrats cheat. He has repeatedly refused to say whether he will accept the results regardless of the outcome. And he has claimed that cheating is already taking place, citing discredited claims or scandalous theories with no basis in reality.

“The only thing that can stop us is deception. “It’s the only thing that can stop us,” he said at an event in Arizona on Thursday night.

In 2020, Trump prematurely declared victory from the White House. He launched a legal and political effort to reverse his defeat against Democrat Joe Biden that culminated in the assault on the capitol by his followers on January 6, 2021.

Democrats fear he could do the same this year before the race is called. He did not answer a question Friday in Dearborn, Michigan, about those Democratic concerns, instead focusing on attacking Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has made election lies a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign, issuing feverish warnings about fraud while promising to retaliate against people he considers standing in his way.

This year, he is backed by a sophisticated “election integrity” operation built by his campaign and the Republican National Committee that has already filed more than 130 lawsuits and signed up more than 230,000 volunteers who are being trained to deploy as observers and election workers across the country. country on election day.

Here’s a look at Trump’s strategy to sow doubt in this year’s election and the facts behind each claim.

Non-citizen vote

THE CLAIM: Trump has alleged, without evidencethat Democrats have allowed millions of immigrants to enter the country illegally in order to register to vote. in a interview with Newsmax in SeptemberTrump alleged that such efforts were already underway.

“They are working overtime trying to sign people up, illegally, to vote in the elections,” he said. “They are working overtime to sign and register people; many of the same people you just saw crossing the border. That’s probably their original thought, because why else would they want to destroy our country?

THE FACTS: It takes years for newcomers to become citizens and only citizens can legally cast their vote in federal elections. Isolated cases of non-citizens caught trying to vote, such as a student at the University of Michigan from China arrested for allegedly casting an illegal vote, do not reflect a broader conspiracy.

Investigations have shown that non-citizens register and cast votes illegally. It is extremely rare and it is usually done by mistake.

Votes abroad

THE CLAIM: Trump has pointed to Democratic efforts to secure the votes of Americans living abroad as another opportunity for fraud. It is alleged that they are “preparing to MAKE DECEPTIONS.” and “they want” to dilute the TRUE vote of our beautiful soldiers and their families.”

THE FACTS: The former president himself has campaigned for the votes of Americans abroad, promising to finish so-called “double taxation” for people who often pay taxes in the country where they reside as well as to the United States government.

Ominous warnings

THE CLAIM: Trump has begun to suggest that Harris might have access to some kind of secret inside information about the outcome of a race that has not yet been decided.

Since the vice president took a day off to give interviews with Telemundo and NBC, he has repeatedly suggested: “Maybe she knows something that we don’t know.”

Last weekend in Michigan, he suggested there’s no way Harris would campaign with Beyoncé, one of the world’s biggest stars, if the race was really as close as polls suggest.

“Number one, they cheat like hell. So maybe they know something we don’t, right? said. “Maybe they know something that we don’t know, I don’t know. Why the hell would she be celebrating when you’re down? Maybe (I never thought about it) maybe she knows something we don’t. But we are not going to allow that to happen.”

THE FACTS: There is no evidence to support a Democratic conspiracy. In fact, Trump stoked fears about his own internal planning at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden when he turned to House Speaker Mike Johnson and talked about a “little secret” they had.

Johnson, before becoming speaker, took the initiative by writing a widely criticized piece that seeks to reverse Trump’s 2020 loss and echoed some of the wildest conspiracy theories to explain his loss.

When asked about Trump’s reference to a “little secret,” Johnson issued a statement that included the following: “By definition, a secret should not be shared, and I have no intention of sharing this one.” (He later told an audience that it related to “one of our get-out-the-vote tactics,” according to The Hill. Trump’s campaign issued a statement noting that he had “held countless telerallies” to help shore up Republican votes in Congress.

Returning to Pennsylvania

THE CLAIM: In recent days, Trump has directed his ire at Pennsylvania, a state that both campaigns consider critical and where he claims cheating is already taking place.

Earlier this weekclaimed, York County, Pennsylvania, had “received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications from a group of third parties.” He also singled out Lancaster County, which he claimed had been “caught with 2,600 fake ballots and forms, all written by the same person. “Really bad ‘things’.”

During a campaign event in Allentown on Tuesday, the former president said: “They already started cheating in Lancaster. They have cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. No, we caught them cold. 2,600 votes. Think about this, think about this. And every vote was written by the same person.”

THE FACTS: In Lancaster, county District Attorney Heather Adams, a Republican-elect, has said election workers raised concerns about two sets of voter registration applications due to what she described as numerous similarities. Officials are now examining a total of about 2,500 forms.

To be clear, Lancaster is investigating voter registration applications, not “votes.” Lancaster officials said some forms contained false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses or other problematic details, but they did not say they were all written by the same person.

York County Chief Clerk Greg Monskie confirmed this week that his county was reviewing the suspicious forms. County Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a statement saying voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications were among a “large delivery containing thousands of election-related materials” that the county elections office received. from an external organization.

State officials say the discovery and investigation of the requests (not the votes) is evidence that the system is working as it should.

Prosecution threats

THE CLAIM: Trump has threatened severe consequences for those who engage in what he considers “unscrupulous behavior.”

In a social media post falsely citing “the rampant cheating and deception that has taken place by Democrats in the 2020 presidential election,” he warned that, “WHEN I WON, THOSE PEOPLE WHO CHEATED WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST extension of the sentence. the Law, which will include long-term prison sentences.”

The posts continue to threaten “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including election officials, lawyers and donors, who he says “will be sought, captured and prosecuted at levels that have, sadly, never been seen before in our country.” ”.

THE FACTS: Judges, election officials and even Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, all have affirmed that there was no widespread cheating in the 2020 election.

If elected again, Trump has vowed to go after rivals he considers “domestic enemies,” even saying he would appoint a special prosecutor to attack Biden. That’s more than a theoretical threat, given that when he was president, Trump repeatedly pushed for investigations into alleged political adversaries.

While the Justice Department has controls intended to protect itself from political influence, Trump could appoint leaders who would facilitate the opening of cases at his behest.

___

Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Adriana Gómez Licón in Dearborn, Michigan, and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.