'Must have had a bad night': Trump sparks alarm with early morning 'gibberish' rant

President Donald Trump declared war on mail-in ballots and voting machines in an early morning rant ahead of next year's midterm elections — and social media users reacted with suspicion and concern.

The president posted a nearly 300-word tirade Monday morning on Truth Social, vowing to end mail-in voting through an executive order after claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him that it had cost him the 2020 election.

“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, and also, while we’re at it, highly inaccurate, very expensive, and seriously controversial voting machines, which cost ten times more than accurate and sophisticated watermark paper,” Trump posted. “The mail-in ballot hoax, using voting machines that are a complete and total disaster, must end now!”

Trump has long criticized the practice as fraudulent and falsely claimed that no other countries accepted mail-in votes, and those concerns formed the basis of his lies about his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden that eventually culminated in the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as his supporters tried to overturn the results of that election.

“Remember, the states are merely an ‘agent’ for the federal government in counting and tabulating the votes; they must do what the federal government, as represented by the president of the United States, tells them, for the good of our country, to do,” Trump posted.

Other social media users picked apart Trump's claims.

"Trump must have had a bad night," said MSNBC legal analyst Joyce White Vance. "Spewing lies about elections. Again. Every American citizen has a right to vote, Each state runs its own election. We don’t owe the president. It’s the president who owes us a duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed."

"This is step one in how we lose free and fair elections," posted journalist and historian Garrett Graff. "It’s not that Trump will 'cancel' the midterms. It’s just everyone has to vote in person, and urban downtowns will be filled with ICE checkpoints and intimidating National Guard troops to 'double check' that only citizens vote."

"He’s completely wrong," added Bluesky user Honorable Plebian. "It’s a bottom-up system. Feds run zero elections. States organize and municipalities hold elections, tabulate and then report to the state. The federal government is an observer of elections. That’s how it was designed … to prevent what he wants to do."

"This is a perfect example of an effective influence campaign," noted former national security aide Alexander Vindman. "After a meeting with Putin, where Putin questioned the legitimacy of mail-in ballots, Trump launches a campaign to end mail-in. I don’t think many people understand how easy it is to puppeteer Trump."

"This is gibberish," said investor George Pearkes.

"Trump votes by mail," replied Bluesky user Grudgie the Whale. "He knows better than anyone he’s lying his a-- off. It’s as simple as: he’s going to try and suppress enough votes to steal elections."

"States are not 'agents' of the federal government when it comes to federal elections and the President *literally* has nothing to do with how they administer them," added former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa. "Also didn’t they spend years blaming Dominion Voting Systems for 'switching votes'??"

"'The states are an agent of the federal government' is the most substantive thing here and even I, someone with dim view of state sovereignty, understands this to be false," postedNew York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie.

"Who will be the first Federalist [sic] Society academic with an op-ed saying 'when you think about it, Trump has a point, states kind of are just agents of the federal government'?" wondered political scientist Jacob Levy. "Bonus points if it’s someone who has argued that the VRA violates states’ rights."

"Donald Trump announces he will issue an unconstitutional and illegal executive order purporting to ban mail-in voting and certain voting equipment for the 2026 midterm election," said voting rights expert Marc Elias. "Such an effort would violate the Constitution and is a major step to prevent free and fair elections."

"Set aside the clear implication (he wants to rig the 2026 elections)," argued historian Joshua Zeitz. "If you don’t have mail-in ballots, and you don’t have voting machines, what? 150 million people cast paper ballots in person and then we hand count them?"

"If mail-in ballots are ended, what about the deployed military?" added writer Suzanne Minarcine. "Students studying abroad? Homebound elderly? This is one more attack on our voting rights."