'A sign of weakness': Trump hurls election fraud accusation at unexpected target

There’s a new target for Donald Trump’s election fraud accusations — and it’s not President Joe Biden.

“Reject DeSantis on January 15,” a new Iowa campaign flier reads. “Stop the fraud.”

Iowans’ mailboxes this week were stuffed with new campaign literature accusing the Florida governor, and Trump’s conservative competitor in the 2024 presidential race, of attempting to fix the Republican Iowa caucus.

The claim centers on a headline about DeSantis’ wife.

“Ron DeSantis’ Wife, Casey, Encouraged Republicans to Commit Voter Fraud in Iowa,” reads one such headline from The Forward, but incorrectly attributed to Yahoo News.

“Casey DeSantis Accused of Urging Voter Fraud With Iowa Caucus Remarks,” reads the other from Newsweek.

Below the headlines appears a response from Trump.

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“When you swamp them with enough votes,” Trump says, “there’s a point at which they can only cheat so much.”

But, as The New Republic noted when it covered the Iowa flier Friday, DeSantis’ wife's original quote is less nefarious than the campaign copy suggests.

Casey DeSantis last month appeared on Fox News to urge voters to help in her husband’s campaign, saying, “You do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus.”

She later clarified she did not mean to suggest out-of-state residents should try to vote.

New Republic journalist Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling argues the campaign message suggests mounting fears in the Trump campaign over the former president’s challenges, among them four criminal court cases and multiple moves to block him from state ballots under the 14th Amendment’s insurrectionist ban.

“The baseless accusation of more voter fraud comes as a sign of weakness,” writes Houghtaling, “not strength.”