PRESIDENT Donald Trump yesterday claimed without evidence that a Virginia vote clearing the way for the state’s congressional map to be redrawn had been ‘rigged’, reviving a familiar line of attack after Republicans lost a closely watched election.
Virginia voters on Tuesday approved a redistricting referendum that could help Democrats flip as many as four Republican-held seats in the US House of Representatives and boost Democrats’ chances of winning control of the chamber in November.
In a social media post yesterday, Trump declared that “A rigged election took place last night in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia!” and blamed mail-in ballots for the outcome. The post was the latest example of Trump casting doubt on election outcomes he dislikes by portraying ordinary vote counting, particularly the tabulation of mail ballots, as evidence of fraud without offering proof.
The outcome in Virginia is the latest twist in the nation’s redistricting arms race, which Trump and Texas Republicans began last year as they sought to defend the party’s slim House majority during the midterm elections in November.
Trump, who has not accepted that he lost the 2020 presidential election despite having failed in dozens of courts to challenge the results, has consistently sought to undermine faith in the voting process.
After his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden, Trump falsely claimed widespread fraud and backed efforts to overturn the result, including pressuring his then vice president, Mike Pence, to not certify the election results.
Courts, state election officials and his own administration have since found no evidence of fraud on a scale that would have changed the outcome.
In recent months, the Trump administration has stepped up its effort to revive claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The Justice Department is seeking a swath of state voter data, while the FBI has reopened old election-fraud allegations in battleground states including Georgia.
Meanwhile, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Trump’s aggressive campaign to deport immigrants could weigh on his Republican Party in November’s midterm congressional elections.
Some 52 per cent of Americans in the six-day poll completed on Monday said they were less likely to support a candidate who backs Trump’s approach to deportations, significantly more than the 42pc who said they were more likely to support such a candidate.
The disadvantage for Trump allies was more stark among people who don’t identify with either major political party, with 57pc of independents saying they prefer a candidate who opposes Trump’s deportations and 32pc preferring candidates who support Trump on the issue.
Republicans could face an uphill battle to defend their majorities in both chambers of Congress in November’s midterm elections, with the party already under pressure over a surge in petrol prices as a result of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Republican legislators have almost universally backed Trump’s hardline approach on immigration, reflecting the president’s growing dominance over the party since winning the 2024 election on a promise to crack down on unauthorised immigrants.
Trump’s immigration policy was initially supported by a fairly broad slice of America, with 50pc of the country approving of his performance on the issue in Reuters/Ipsos polls from the weeks after his January 2025 inauguration. But after more than a year of aggressive enforcement measures – including the deployment of masked federal agents nationwide and the deaths of two US citizens caught up in the crackdown – only 40pc of respondents in the latest poll approved of Trump’s performance on the issue.
The poll, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 4,557 US adults nationwide and had a margin of error of two percentage points. Trump’s deportation drive may have made a lasting impression on Americans, said Sarah Pierce, director of social policy for the centre-left organisation Third Way.
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