Why Donald Trump’s election lies matter

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Minnesota — the state with the longest streak of backing Democratic presidential candidates — is “ready to turn red,” said U.S. Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee. Vance, from Ohio, was speaking outside a diner in Waite Park, Minn., on the morning after a packed rally in St. Cloud with the candidate at the top of the ticket, former President Donald Trump.

At Saturday’s rally, Trump amplified Vance’s prediction, saying: “If they don’t cheat, we will win this state easily.”

Just suggesting the specter of cheating reflects the lie about the 2020 election that’s at the heart of the 2024 campaign.

Dozens of court cases, a congressional investigation made up almost exclusively of Republican witnesses and the action of Trump’s own vice president at the time, Mike Pence, belie the idea of cheating in 2020 or this November.

Yet Trump continues with the lie. And Vance says that if he’d been vice president in 2020 he would not have moved to certify the results (unlike Pence, who, despite enabling Trump for years, ultimately did the right thing when it counted). As for Minnesota’s Republican representatives, they unquestionably back the ex-president — and by extension his lies — especially Tom Emmer, who was prominent at the rally held in his congressional district.

That’s not just a problem for America’s domestic politics but its foreign policy, too.

Take the case of Venezuela, which on Sunday held a presidential election that nearly every observer believes was won decisively by a broad-based movement opposing incumbent Nicolas Maduro, whose authoritarian rule has impoverished an oil-rich, once-wealthy nation and bankrupted its institutions, including free and fair elections.

Sunday’s was anything but, according to many Venezuelans — as well as regional and global leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking for the Biden administration. The officially announced results had Maduro earning 51% of the votes over opposition candidate Edmundo González’ 44%. Exit polls, however, reflected González garnering about two-thirds of the vote. The main opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado (barred by the regime from running herself) simply called the supposed results “impossible.”

Venezuelans “had gotten their hopes up that [Maduro] would finally relinquish power because exit polls suggested he was going to lose pretty badly,” David Samuels, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, told an editorial writer. Speaking from Brazil, Samuels said that he joined in the suspicion voiced by scores of nations, as well as their call for the Maduro government to produce electoral evidence.

Not surprisingly, repressive regimes in Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Cuba and elsewhere welcomed the results. Most countries’ governments did not, however, including ones led by leftists in Brazil and Colombia, which both called for more transparency to prove the dubious claims. Overall, nine nations in Latin America said they would call for an urgent meeting of the 34-member Organization of American States, which includes the United States.

If some or all of these nations choose to use sanctions or other economic measures to protest a sham election, it may exacerbate the hemispheric migration crisis, and not just at the U.S. southern border.

An estimated 20% of Venezuelans have had to flee the country, according to the United Nations. “Instead of protesting,” Samuels said, “their protest is to leave.” Which in turn can destabilize other countries, too.

Normally, this nation would lead regional allies in a cohesive, coordinated response. Which is what the Biden administration is likely to attempt.

But Trump claiming that elections are rigged in America, ostensibly the beacon of democracy, may crimp that critical role, especially if Maduro calls out the U.S. for hypocrisy.

If Trump wins the election, it may further mar the moral standing of this nation on such issues, which is just one of the many potentially damaging outcomes of his running down our country by running around lying about it or by sounding nearly indistinguishable from anti-democratic leaders. Such was the case on Friday night, when Trump told a group of religious conservatives that “you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.” Interpret that statement generously if you’d like, but Trump had a chance to clarify his meaning on Monday and doubled down instead.

The potential effect of such reckless rhetoric seems lost on the Republican leader, his blindly compliant running mate and most GOP lawmakers.

It shouldn’t be lost on voters on Election Day, however — even the throngs who packed the rally on Saturday in St. Cloud.