Trump family goes all-in on misinformation as president’s re-election hopes dim

With Joe Biden just six electoral votes from victory, the Trump entourage continues to spread unproven theories that Democrats are trying to cheat their way to a win

As Joe Biden edges toward a potential victory, with just six electoral votes standing between him and the presidency, much of the Trump family has followed the president’s lead and doubled down on spreading unfounded claims of mass voter fraud.

The former Vice President leads Mr Trump in the Electoral College 264 to 214, and the president’s children and their partners have blamed everything from Sharpies to the media to bad math for the results, earning them cheers from supporters and numerous warnings from Twitter that their posts may be misleading.

Donald Trump, Jr., one of the president’s sons, called election results in Georgia “b—t,” and accused Democrats of “gamesmanship” in the closely fought state of Pennsylvania, even though the president and his sons have all prematurely declared themselves the victors ahead of official confirmation from authorities.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, who heads the Trump Victory Finance Committee and is dating Donald Trump, Jr., has also retweeted thus-far unfounded theories about the election, including that Democrats tried to illegally win in Nevada, which remains uncalled, and that the news media was conspiring to put out false polling numbers.

One of the president’s other sons, Eric Trump, has joined in the effort as well, retweeting a debunked conspiracy theory that Sharpie pens on ballots were responsible for suppressing the Republican vote. He also joining the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani for a fiery, inaccuracy-riddled speech in Pennsylvania accusing Democrats of cheating.

Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump, also joined in, retweeting a claim that high voter turnout in Wisconsin meant Democrats were “stealing” the election, which came from a former Fox News contributor who was axed after calling Kamala Harris a “lying b—h.” 

Other members of the Trump inner circle have moved to challenge the results behind the scenes, with the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner calling Fox News head Rupert Murdoch to try and get them to recant calling  Arizona for Joe Biden.

Some of the Trump family’s criticism of voting, which often centers on the baseless notion that mail-in voting creates massive fraud, is posturing, as Mr Kushner and his wife and fellow presidential adviser Ivanka Trump both voted by mail themselves this election. Previously, at least five members of the Trump inner circle have had voting irregularities in the past such as registering in multiple states, according to Buzzfeed News.

The firehouse of misinformation around voting has had real-world consequences, with angry groups of pro-Trump protestors trying to storm a Detroit ballot-counting facility, and shutting down another processing location in Arizona on Wednesday night after sizable groups of armed demonstrators arrived on the scene.