Trump tells people to vote on January 5 – and social media users are all making the same joke
‘He mixed up his coup date and the election date,’ one X user quipped
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has called for voters to get out and vote on January 5 2025, two months after Election Day – and social media users are all making the same joke.
The former president was addressing a crowd at an Oaks, Pennsylvania, town hall on Monday night, as both presidential candidates made campaign stops in the crucial swing state just three weeks before the November 5 election.
While on stage, Trump sought to tout his support amongst Black and Latino voters – following a recent New York Times and Siena College poll – and urged Americans to get out and vote on Election Day.
The only problem was: Trump got the critical date wrong.
“I’ll tell you, if everything works out and everybody gets out on January 5, or before,” Trump told the crowd, seemingly oblivious of his gaffe.
Social media users were quick to poke fun at the former president, claiming he mixed up the last date to vote and the anniversary of the day a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021 to overturn his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden.
“He mixed up his coup date and the election date,” one person teased on X.
Another added: “You can tell that January 6th is on that POS [piece of s**t] insurrectionist’s mind.”
“Yes MAGA, go vote on Jan 5th!!” a third joked, while a fourth simply wrote: “Dementia Don is back.”
After his slip, Trump, 78, then took a swipe at the presidential election process – more specifically, early voting.
“You know, it used to be, you’d have a date,” he said.
At the town hall, moderated by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Trump also pushed a falsehood about the public being able to vote after November 5.
“Today, you can vote two months before, probably three months after,” he said.
“They don’t know what the hell they’re doing. But we’re gonna straighten it all out. We’re gonna straighten that out, too. We’re gonna straighten out our election process, too.”
No state allows voters to cast their ballots after Election Day. Some absentee or mail-in votes may be counted after polls have closed but must have a postmark on or before the election.
The former president has been staunch critic of mail-in voting, falsely claiming it’s fraudulent. Such claims fueled some of his followers to peddle a conspiracy theory that workers at Detroit’s Huntington Place ballot-counting station attempted to rig the 2020 election. Trump also falsely claimed that there were far more votes cast than voters themselves – a claim that was swiftly debunked with just over 250,000 of 670,000 residents casting ballots.
Experts, including one hired by Trump’s own campaign, and multiple lawsuits and investigations found no evidence that the 2020 election was rigged in Michigan or any other state.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments