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Trump and allies have primed supporters to falsely believe he has no chance of losing

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Trump and allies have primed supporters to falsely believe he has no chance of losing

Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Monday, the night before Election Day.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images


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Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

For more 2024 election coverage from the NPR Network head to our live updates page.

It’s possible former President Donald Trump will win the election — and also quite possible he loses. But many in Trump’s orbit keep falsely telling his supporters the only way that happens is because of cheating.

Polling indicates a competitive race in seven battleground states that will decide if Trump or Vice President Harris is the next president, states where voters’ political and demographic makeups mean there are no guaranteed winners.

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Trump still insists he did not lose the 2020 election, despite numerous recounts and court cases that did not find evidence of fraud. His 2024 campaign is built on that foundation, telling his supporters the only way to “Make America Great Again” in a second term is to vote so that his victory could be “too big to rig.”

A large part of Trump’s closing message in recent weeks has focused on attacking any outcome other than victory as tainted, illegitimate and fraudulent, with no proof or basis in reality.

He has regularly questioned the legality of Harris’ role as the Democratic presidential nominee, calling President Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid and her subsequent selection under Democratic Party rules a “coup.”

After his supporters launched a failed insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump has still refused to say if he would accept the results of this election, win or lose.

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Eric Trump and his wife, Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump high-five during a rally for former President Donald Trump in Reading, Pa., on Monday.

Eric Trump and his wife, Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump high-five during a rally for former President Donald Trump in Reading, Pa., on Monday.

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Alongside the Republican National Committee, led by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Trump’s legal team has planted the seeds to cry foul in several key states if he loses, like Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, filing numerous lawsuits seeking to disqualify voters and ballots or demand rule changes they say suppress Republican voters.

The final days of the campaign have seen a barrage of baseless claims about voting rules, possible election outcomes and Trump’s chances to win from a constellation of his family, friends and faithful associates.

Social media site X has been home to a proliferation of false fraud claims about the election, and the site’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, has used his considerable platform to amplify conspiracy theories about ballot counting and other normal election procedures while misleadingly sharing early voting data to claim a “decisive Republican victory.”

On Monday, Trump’s son Donald Trump, Jr. riled up a partially empty arena in North Carolina by urging people to show up to vote en masse so “you don’t give [Democrats] a week to find that magical truck of ballots.”

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Trump himself has posted online that “Pennsylvania is cheating” and often dedicates parts of his rambling rallies to accusing his opponents of cheating while bragging about often-overinflated poll numbers.

In Pittsburgh Monday night at his penultimate presidential campaign rally, Trump said he has been given “about a 96.2% chance” of winning Tuesday, of which there is no evidence.

Many factors go into a Trump loss — or win

Polling, election analysts and math suggests Trump does not have a 96.2% chance of winning enough states to be the Electoral College winner. The reason the race is instead very close is not fraud, but rather several potential warning signs with his third presidential campaign and voters’ reaction to it.

In several of the swing states, there are lingering effects from the public and private pressure campaign he exerted to get Republican lawmakers and officials to overturn his 2020 defeat. The 2022 midterms saw several high-profile Trump-backed candidates who embraced the false fraud claims falter in what otherwise should have been a good year for Republicans.

His feuds with Republicans who defended the election results led to a notable loss of support among independent voters and conservatives who oppose his candidacy.

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Efforts the RNC undertook to make inroads with nonwhite voters in the last election cycle have been abandoned in favor of beefed-up election integrity teams. As a result, much of the get-out-the-vote operation has been outsourced to inexperienced third parties.

After the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed a national right to obtain abortion care, Republicans have lost ground with women, especially in states that have passed strict abortion bans in the aftermath of that decision.

In many states, Trump’s plea for Republicans to “bank your vote” and participate in early voting appears to have paid off, but election data also shows a sizable share of those voters shifted from Election Day. That could potentially lead to lower Republican turnout Tuesday as part of an overall shift in voter behavior since the pandemic-era 2020 presidential race.

All of these factors could lead to a Trump loss when all the votes are counted, or be footnotes if he wins, but none of them involve the widespread voter fraud he has primed his supporters to be ready for, without cause.

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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump make last-ditch push for votes

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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump make last-ditch push for votes

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump raced across key battleground states in the final hours of campaigning in a last-ditch push for votes, as Americans prepared to head to the polls on Tuesday in one of the closest presidential elections in modern history.

The US vice-president said America was ready for a “fresh start” and claimed the momentum was with her as she held her final rally outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania, the biggest prize among the swing states that will decide the election.

“So America, it comes down to this. One more day, just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime. And the momentum is on our side,” Harris said.

Trump also campaigned in Pennsylvania, promising supporters in Pittsburgh a new “golden age” for the country if he were to win a second term in office.

The Republican former president later staged his final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a sprawling speech that ended past 2am.

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“This is the last one,” he said of the event as he urged supporters to vote. “If we get out our people, it’s over, there’s nothing they can do about it . . . To make you feel a little guilty, we would only have you to blame.”

According to the Financial Times poll tracker, Harris holds a 1.5 percentage point lead over Trump nationally. But among the swing states, the vice-president has a narrow lead only in Michigan and Wisconsin, while Nevada is even and Trump has a small edge in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.

Senior Harris campaign officials said they were on track to win a close contest and believed undecided voters were moving to their side, but they also acknowledged that it could take days to get a final result.

“We are very focused on staying calm and confident throughout this period,” Jen O’ Malley Dillon, the Harris campaign chair, told reporters on Monday afternoon.

From right, Kamala Harris with local restaurant owner Diana de La Rosa, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and governor Josh Shapiro during a campaign stop in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Monday © Jacquelyn Martin/AP

In the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, which has a large Puerto Rican community, Harris sought to boost her support among Latinos after a comedian at a Trump rally in New York made offensive comments about the Caribbean island and US territory last month.

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“I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy . . . we are fighting for a democracy right now,” she said.

Harris was supported by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive New York member of the House of Representatives, and by rapper Fat Joe, who attended the rally and urged Latinos to support Harris. “Where is your orgullo? Where is your pride?” the rapper said.

After days of vitriolic and angry campaign rallies that focused more on his grievances against his political foes and bizarre vows to “protect” women, Trump struggled to recalibrate his message on the economy and immigration.

In Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump spoke in front of female supporters holding up pink signs that read: “Women for Trump.”

Supporters hold ‘Women for Trump’ signs behind the Republican nominee as he speaks during a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Monday
Supporters hold ‘Women for Trump’ signs behind the Republican nominee as he speaks during a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday © Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In Pittsburgh, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, with whom Trump openly feuded a few years ago, appeared at his rally to endorse him, while Joe Rogan, the podcaster with a large male following, also announced his support.

“A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper . . . your pay cheques will be higher, your streets will be safer and cleaner, your communities will be richer and your future will be brighter than ever before,” Trump told the crowd in Pittsburgh.

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Trump’s efforts to project a more positive message to voters were undermined when JD Vance, his running mate, called Harris rubbish during a campaign stop in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier in the day.

“In two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, DC, and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,” JD Vance said.

In Grand Rapids, Trump called Harris a “very low IQ person” and a “radical left lunatic who destroyed San Francisco”.

Meanwhile, the first results of the election were released in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, shortly after midnight local time, with Trump winning three votes and Harris winning three.

Some people who attended Trump’s Pittsburgh rally had travelled long distances. Renée Hughes, a retiree, flew from Sitges, Spain, to vote and attend the rally in her hometown.

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“We have to get our country back,” she said. “We have become an embarrassment. Trump is a real person. He gets us, the normal people, not the elites.”

Holly Gallogly, a retired teacher from Pittsburgh, on the other hand, said: “I voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, but in the past few months I have moved to become undecided because I struggle with the hate rhetoric.”

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Kamala Harris makes final pitch for White House in Philly to 30,000 on Rocky steps

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Kamala Harris makes final pitch for White House in Philly to 30,000 on Rocky steps

Harris looked to capitalize on the scandal by making a surprise appearance at the Old San Juan Cafe restaurant in Reading. 

Both candidates also visited Pittsburgh. Trump then flew off to North Carolina while Harris made her way to Philadelphia, where the crowd had already gathered hours before. 

Mayor Cherelle Parker and Senator Bob Casey kicked it off as people continued to stream in. Parker shared her signature saying, “one Philadelphia,” prompting the crowd to hold up their index fingers. Casey made his last pitch to Pennsylvania voters to keep him in office while also thanking the volunteers for their efforts on behalf of Democrats up and down the ballot.

“At this moment, ll the work that’s been done, all the doors that have been knocked on—more doors than have been knocked on in the history of this state,” he said.”

Lady Gaga, The Roots, and Ricky Martin performed at the event in Philadelphia while Oprah Winfrey, Fat Joe, and Philly’s own DJ Jazzy Jeff delivered speeches. Katy Perry performed via the link to Pittsburgh and Jon Bon Jovi performed Livin on a Prayer from Detroit.

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Shortly before the vice president arrived on the “Rocky Steps,” Lady Gaga performed God Bless America before telling the crowd it was up to them to protect women’s rights. 

“I cast my vote for someone who will be president for all Americans,” she said. “And now, Pennsylvania, it’s your turn. The country is depending on you so, tomorrow, let’s make sure all your voices are heard.”

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