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The President of the United States, Donald Trump, once again used mail-in voting in Florida, the same mechanism he has long labeled as fraudulent, in a new demonstration of the contradiction between his political rhetoric and personal practice.
According to official records from Palm Beach County, the official sent his ballot for the special state elections held this Tuesday, and his vote has already been received and counted by the electoral authorities.
He did it from his residence in Mar-a-Lago, in southern Florida, where he was over the weekend leading up to the vote.
The gesture contrasts with his most recent public statements. Just a day before, Trump was insisting on his outright rejection of this system.
"Voting by mail is synonymous with mail-in electoral fraud... I call it mail-in electoral fraud, and we have to do something about it," he stated during an event in Memphis.
It is not a new position.
For years now, and especially following his defeat in the 2020 presidential elections, the president has made mail-in voting one of his main political targets, repeatedly labeling it as "fraudulent" and "corrupt to the core."
However, this is not the first time he has resorted to this method: he also voted by mail in 2020, claiming then that he could not travel to vote in person.
A practice that contradicts its discourse
The White House tried to downplay the apparent incoherence.
The presidential spokesperson, Olivia Wales, stated that Trump's case does not contradict her political agenda, as it pertains to an individual situation.
"As President Trump has stated, the SAVE America Act includes common-sense exceptions allowing Americans to use mail-in voting in cases of illness, disability, military service, or travel," he explained, according to a report by AP.
However, he insisted that "universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it is highly susceptible to fraud."
Wales also justified the specific case of the leader.
"As everyone knows, the president resides in Palm Beach and participates in the elections in Florida, but obviously primarily lives in the White House in Washington, D.C. This does not matter," he asserted.
Despite these explanations, the contradiction persists: Trump has intensified his pressure in recent weeks to restrict mail-in voting nationwide, while continuing to use it when it suits him.
The political backdrop: A key law in dispute
Mail-in voting has once again become a central focus of political debate in the United States.
Trump is strongly promoting the so-called SAVE America Act, a legislative proposal that would tighten the requirements for voting in federal elections, including the requirement for proof of citizenship.
The president himself has described this initiative as the "most important issue" in Washington, even surpassing other international topics.
Additionally, he has insisted that mail-in voting should be restricted solely to exceptional cases such as "ILLNESS, DISABILITY, MILITARY SERVICE, OR TRAVEL."
However, the proposal faces strong Democratic opposition, which warns that it could exclude broad sectors of the population from the electoral system.
In a divided Senate, its chances of approval are uncertain.
A discourse lacking data support
Trump's claims about an alleged widespread fraud also lack support from the available evidence.
A report from the Brookings Institution published in 2025 estimated that cases of mail-in voting fraud account for only 0.000043% of the total; that is, approximately four cases for every 10 million votes cast.
Despite this, the president has maintained his narrative, even claiming recently that the United States is "the only country in the world" that uses this system, a statement refuted by international organizations that document its use in dozens of democracies.
Local elections under national scrutiny
Trump's vote occurred in the context of special elections in Florida to fill vacant seats in the state legislature, including one in the district that encompasses his residence in Mar-a-Lago.
In that contest, the president expressed his support for the Republican candidate Jon Maples against the Democrat Emily Gregory.
Although it is a local election, the episode once again places the debate over mail-in voting at the center of American politics, especially with the upcoming midterm elections in mind.
As Trump intensifies his offensive against this system, his decision to use it again reveals a contradiction that is hard to overlook: the gap between the narrative of fraud he publicly promotes and the electoral practices he continues to engage in privately.
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