President Donald Trump has spent years building a case against mail-in ballots and this week he found what he thought was the perfect opportunity to make it stick against Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore. What started as a DOJ investigation into a minor ballot error quickly spiraled into someth ing far more revealing and the story Trump told on camera to back his case up is now the part nobody can stop talking about. U.S. President Donald Trump and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (Photo: Getty Images) On Monday, May 18, Trump demanded his DOJ look into the error after the Maryland Election Board announced it sent out the wrong primary ballots to some voters. Trump quickly claimed it was a massive error that involved some “500,000 Illegal Mail-In Ballots” in a post on his Truth Social platform, accusing “the Corrupt Governor of the State” of insuring Republicans lose. ‘Bro Forgot 90 Million People Could See This’: Trump Sparks Frenzy After Sharing Message Critics Say Sounded Way Too Personal The election board says Trump’s claim that the state “just had 500,000 Fake Mail-In Ballots revealed” is not true and no “fake ballots” were issued, according to CBS News. The board says its mail-in ballot vendor made a mistake that resulted in some voters receiving the wrong ballots for next month’s primary but that it believed “only a small number of voters received the wrong ballot,” The Hill reported. Additionally, it planned to issue new ballots to all residents who received one before May 14 and that only replacement ballots would count so there’s “no risk of duplicate voting as a result of this issue.” Trump didn’t believe the board and later doubled down on pushing disinformation about the snafu when answering a reporter’s question about it. “I’m very concerned about it. I’m very concerned about mail-in ballots. We’re the only country in the world that’s doing mail-in ballots, and mail-in ballot is, by just the nature of it, it’s going to be corrupt,” Trump said, continuing his gaslighting over the issue. Voter rights organizations and think tanks, such as the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice have repeatedly verified the safety of drop boxes, mail-in voting, and absentee voting, something Trump has insisted ad nauseam is rife with fraud. “The reality is that mail ballots have been successfully used in the United States for over 150 years, and in that time, states have developed multiple layers of security to protect against malfeasance,” the Brennan Center says on its website. The think tank also says the chances of fraud through mail-in ballots are as rare as someone being struck by lightning. Trump then launched into a story so astonishing that opponents can’t figure out why he would say something so provably false. “You go into a well-run voting booth in a certain state … Look, even me, I went in Florida and went to vote, and they said, ‘Sir, I hate to do it. I’m so embarrassed. Could I see your identification?’ I said, ‘You really want to do that?’ ‘Please, sir? I’ll lose my job if I don’t do that,” Trump recounted. Trump caught lying about mail-in voting again, as he made up a story about being asked for his ID when he went to vote… but he voted by mail-in ballot.His story never happened.pic.twitter.com/Rkrio4TuIq— Really American (@ReallyAmerican1) May 19, 2026 There’s only one problem, it never happened, at least not during the most recent special elections in Florida where it’s confirmed Trump did mail-in voting. Trump who has been trying to force the Senate to ram through a voter suppression bill ahead of the upcoming midterm elections that would require proof of citizenship like a passport or a birth certificate to register to vote, actually cast his ballot in a special Florida election in February by mail. If it’s so rife with election fraud, as Trump continually claims, why would he vote by mail when he doesn’t want anyone else to? He answered that question back in March when PBS host Liz Landers asked him why he voted by mail after relentlessly attacking it for so long. View this post on Instagram A post shared by PBS News (@newshour) “I’m the president of the United States,” Trump said as if that explained the gaslighting over mail-in voting. “And because of the fact I’m president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida because I felt like I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sun,” he told Landers, according to Democracy Docket.  “So, I was away, mostly in Washington, D.C., so I used a mail-in ballot, but I don’t appreciate the question,” Trump grumbled after he was forced to admit that he does the very thing he’s been complaining about and campaigning against for years. Trump Got So Obsessed With Taking Down Gov. Wes Moore He Told a Story on Camera He Never Should Have — Then What Surfaced Next Sent the Whole Thing Spiraling ...read more read less