Donald Trump's 'you won't have to vote again' statement analysed by US expert

The election campaign in the US is going ahead in full steam as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris battle it out to become the next President. Harris, who Trump previously called 'pathetic', has been giving the former POTUS a tough fight. In his own rallies, the business mogul has been making statements that are causing confusion, not only in America.

Is Donald Trump going to abolish voting?

Donald Trump gave a speech at the Believers Summit in Florida, in July 2024. There he assured the local Christians not only that he loved them, but also that they only had to vote this one more time:

Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.

I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote.

This sparked a heated discussion on the platform X, amongothers, about whether Melania Trump's husband had announced here that he wanted to abolish elections altogether. Many users called him a dictator, as this was not Donald Trump's first statement that sounded as if he wanted to abolish democracy in the USA.

Experts say it is unlikely, but not impossible

But these statements not only caused a stir in America, they also caused confusion in Europe - and concern about what could happen if the Republican is re-elected and wants to take this seriously.

German newspaper ARD therefore asked the US expert Johannes Thimm for his assessment of the situation. In his opinion, it is rather unlikely that Donald Trump wants to steal the election altogether. Rather, he sees this as a common tactic of the politician:

To me, that seems to be the typical arrogance of Trump: he simply solves all problems in the blink of an eye without saying exactly how. [...] I don't believe that Trump has thought his statements through to the last detail. The fact that there are several ways of interpreting Trump's statements is also hardly surprising. Trump always keeps a loophole of ambiguity open so that he can then deny certain things.

Nevertheless, Trump could be dangerous for democracy

Johaness Thimm does not believe that Trump intends to abolish elections altogether - especially as the election rules are determined by the states. However, he also explained it cannot be denied that the 79-year-old has got 'authoritarian tendencies'.

He had also made several statements that sounded as if he wanted to abolish the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution in order to clear the way for further terms in office. The amendment was introduced after Roosevelt's 12-year presidency and clearly states that a president may be in office for a maximum of two terms.

Trump clarified his statement after the controversy

A few weeks after his controversial statement, Trump clarified his statement when talking with Dr.Phil. He said that his intention was to get Christians out to vote because he believes that voter turnout is low in the community, and his plan is to straighten everything out in the four years so if they don't vote after that, it won't matter. He added:

Doesn't mean we're not going to have elections. You can have elections, but you have to vote this time.

This article has been translated from Oh!MyMag DE.

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Sources used:

ARD Faktenfinder: Will Trump die Wahlen in den USA abschaffen?

Reuters: Trump tells Christians they won't have to vote after this election

The Dot: Trump's clarification