President Donald Trump voted by mail for the second time this year, casting his ballot in Florida‘s Republican primary.
Trump has bashed mail-in voting repeatedly since the 2020 election cycle, arguing that it was vulnerable to voting fraud. However, the president and his surrogates have opted for a tactical retreat in some cases, viewing it as a necessary evil. He’s previously cast himself as an exception to his rule of wanting an end to mail-in voting due to his position, and used this exception once again to request a mail-in ballot last month, according to Politico.
Viewing Florida voting records, the president requested his mail-in ballot on July 13 and received it on Aug. 13, the outlet reported.
Responding to the outlet, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales dismissed inquiries as to his voting by mail as a “non-story.”
“As President Trump has said, the SAVE America Act has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel — but universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it’s highly susceptible to fraud,” she said.
“As everyone knows, the President is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections, but he obviously primarily lives at the White House in Washington, D.C.,” Wales added.
Trump was open about his vote by mail earlier this year for a Florida special election, telling reporters in March that his circumstances made him an obvious exception.
“I did, you know what, because I’m president of the United States, and because of the fact that I’m president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida,” he said during a Cabinet meeting. “I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine.”
TRUMP DEFENDS VOTING BY MAIL IN FLORIDA SPECIAL ELECTION: ‘I WAS AWAY’
“I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn’t be there because I had a lot of different things,” Trump added. “But you know, we have exceptions for mail-in ballots.”
The president said at the time that his mail-in vote was perfectly in line with his desire to ban nearly all cases of mail-in voting, with exceptions for the military, a disability, and for those “on a business trip.”