Former President Donald Trump refused to unconditionally accept the results of the upcoming 2024 presidential election in a Wednesday interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“If everything is honest, I will gladly accept the results. I don’t change that,” Trump said in the interview. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the country’s right.”
It is Trump’s latest comment in which he sought to undermine confidence in the American electoral system if he loses in November.
In the interview, he also repeated false claims that he won Wisconsin during the 2020 election and cast doubt on whether ballots will be counted “honestly.”
“If you go back and look at all the things that were discovered, it shows that I won the election in Wisconsin,” Trump told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“It also showed that I won the election in other places.”
President Joe Biden won Wisconsin in 2020, coming out ahead by about 21,000 votes — a victory of about 0.6 percentage points.
Trump said he would “let it be known” if he felt the 2024 election was not “honest,” but said he anticipated it would be.
“I would be doing the country a disservice if I said otherwise,” Trump said. “But no, I hope for an honest election and we hope to win perhaps by a large margin.”
Trump said: “But if everything is honest, which we anticipate it will be – a lot of changes have been made in the last few years – but if everything is honest, I will absolutely accept the results.”
“I want people who vote to vote honestly. I want the ballots to be counted honestly. I don’t want people to get unapproved things and then do it anyway,” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was rigged or “stolen,” despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Special counsel Jack Smith indicted the former president last year, alleging that Trump broke several laws in his attempts to overturn the election. Trump has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.
Throughout his political career, Trump has regularly refused to accept the results of an election or commit to admitting defeat.
After finishing second in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, Trump accused Senator Ted Cruz of fraud and called for a new run. Later, while facing Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump baselessly claimed that the election he ultimately won was “rigged” and repeatedly refused to say whether he would abide by the result. He again avoided a commitment heading into the 2024 elections.
The Republican candidate joined House Speaker Mike Johnson for a press conference earlier this month to, in part, “draw attention to” what they say are state proposals and lawsuits that would allow people without citizenship vote, CNN previously reported.
Currently, federal law prohibits people without citizenship from voting in federal elections. Those who vote illegally risk fines and face up to a year in prison and deportation.
Trump, however, has consistently made false claims that Democrats want undocumented migrants to enter the country to influence the election, trying to stoke fear around immigration and election security ahead of the November elections.
Trump returned to the campaign trail on Wednesday for the first time since his criminal trial began last month.
The Republican nominee spent the day holding rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan, two critical states he won in 2016 but lost to Biden in 2020.
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