Donald Trump Labelled 'Shameless Hypocrite' After Calling Mail-In Voting 'Cheating' Then Voting By Mail In Florida Election

Donald Trump voted by mail in a Florida special election, days after publicly declaring that 'mail-in voting means mail-in cheating,' prompting swift condemnation and fresh accusations of rank hypocrisy.

Public records from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections confirm that Trump, registered to vote at his Mar-a-Lago estate, cast a mail ballot in the 24 March 2026 special election for Florida House District 87.

The revelation emerged just 24 hours after Trump told an anti-crime roundtable in Memphis, Tennessee, that the practice amounted to systematic fraud, and arrived as his administration was simultaneously lobbying the Senate to outlaw the method for most Americans.

The Mail Ballot Trump Did Not Mention

According to CBS News, county records show Trump requested his ballot on Saturday, 14 March, it was received the following day, and his vote was submitted and counted, all while in-person early voting remained open at the weekend. The election itself was a contest between Democrat Emily Gregory and Republican Jon Maples for the seat vacated by Republican Mike Caruso.

Trump publicly endorsed Maples on his Truth Social platform the evening before polling day, urging supporters to 'GET OUT AND VOTE FOR JON MAPLES!', without disclosing that he had already voted by post.

The District 87 seat covers the area surrounding Mar-a-Lago, a district Trump narrowly won in the 2024 presidential race. Despite his endorsement, CNN projected Democrat Emily Gregory would win the seat, flipping a ruby-red district in a rebuke that will intensify scrutiny of the administration's legislative agenda.

This is not the first time Trump has voted by mail while lambasting the practice. NBC News reported that he did so in 2020 as well, at which point he told reporters: 'I think mail-in voting is a terrible thing. I think if you vote, you should go.' That ballot was hand-delivered by a third party, NPR reported at the time. When challenged on the contradiction then, Trump said simply: 'Sure, I can vote by mail — because I'm allowed to.'

Washington's Response: 'Rules For Me That Don't Apply'

Speaking to reporters at the US Capitol on 24 March, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said: 'For years, Donald Trump has been railing against voting by mail, only to turn around and vote by mail in the special election taking place today in Florida. That's king-like behaviour.' Jeffries added: 'Rules for me that don't apply, but not for thee — that's his position.'

The White House attempted to deflect the backlash. Spokeswoman Olivia Wales said in a statement that Trump's voter ID bill 'has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel,' and characterised the story as 'a non-story' on the grounds that Trump is a Florida resident who primarily lives at the White House in Washington, D.C. Ordinary Florida voters were less forgiving.

Republican voter Michelle Hall told CNN she was unaware Trump had voted by mail, calling it 'terrible unless you have a disability, you're pregnant, you're in the hospital, you're military,' before asking: 'If he's against something, why are you doing it?'

Trump has repeatedly described mail-in voting as 'corrupt as hell,' including in a remark made at the White House during a meeting with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin. He also claimed the US is 'the only country that does mail-in voting,' a claim multiple fact-checkers have debunked, noting that more than two dozen countries operate some form of postal voting.

The SAVE America Act and the Push to Restrict the Ballot

The backdrop to this controversy is Trump's top legislative priority: the SAVE America Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility), which passed the House on 11 February 2026 by 218 votes to 213, with only one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar, crossing the aisle. The bill would impose strict documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration and mandate photo ID for casting a ballot, including copies of ID submitted alongside mail ballots.

Trump has gone further than the bill's text, threatening to sign an executive order ending mail-in voting outright and vowing not to sign other legislation until the SAVE Act passes in its most expansive form. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has acknowledged it is unlikely to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster.

Critics, including the Campaign Legal Center, warn that roughly 21 million Americans lack the documentary proof of citizenship the bill would require, disproportionately affecting low-income voters, married women who have changed their names, and voters of colour.

Research undermines Trump's central claim. A 2025 Brookings Institution report found that mail-ballot fraud occurred in just 0.000043 per cent of total mail votes cast, roughly four cases per 10 million ballots.

Multiple federal courts and Trump's own attorney general found no evidence of fraud affecting the outcome of the 2020 election, despite the pandemic-era surge in mail-ballot usage. A Pew Research Centre poll conducted in 2025 found that 58 per cent of Americans favour allowing voters to cast ballots by mail.

Whether deliberate or careless, the image of a president urging Congress to strip millions of citizens of a voting method he himself exercises, and then declining to disclose it, is one that his opponents will not let go of quickly.