It is the conversation that never quite goes away. Whether you are sitting at a Thanksgiving table or scrolling through a heated thread on X, the phrase Donald Trump rigged election is basically a permanent fixture of American political discourse. People have strong feelings about it. Some view it as a rallying cry for "election integrity," while others see it as a dangerous myth that threatened the very foundations of democracy.
But honestly? Most of the shouting matches miss the technical reality of how American elections actually work.
Now that we are well into 2026, and Donald Trump has returned to the Oval Office after his 2024 victory, the perspective has shifted. It is kind of fascinating, really. In 2020, the narrative was that the system was broken, hacked, and stolen. In 2024, when the results went the other way, many of those same "rigged" claims suddenly evaporated from the right, only to be picked up by a few skeptical voices on the left.
Let's cut through the noise and look at what really happened, what the courts found, and why the "rigged" label is a lot more complicated than a simple "yes" or "no."
The 2020 Infrastructure: Was it Actually Vulnerable?
When people talk about a Donald Trump rigged election, they usually start with the machines. We’ve all heard the names: Dominion, Smartmatic, and those "glitches" that supposedly flipped votes in the middle of the night.
But here is the thing. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—which was actually led by a Trump appointee at the time, Chris Krebs—called the 2020 election "the most secure in American history." Krebs didn't just say that for fun. He said it because, unlike in past decades, 2020 had a paper trail for about 95% of all votes cast.
You can’t "hack" a piece of paper that is sitting in a sealed box. When Georgia did a full hand recount of every single one of its 5 million ballots, the results were almost identical to the machine count. If the machines were "flipping" votes, a hand count would have caught it instantly. It didn't.
The "Finding" Votes Narrative
You've likely heard the recording of Trump calling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He asked him to "find 11,780 votes." To critics, this was the "rigging" attempt itself—an effort to pressure an official to change the tally. To supporters, he was simply asking for a more thorough investigation into what he believed was a pool of uncounted legal votes.
The reality? Raffensperger, a Republican who voted for Trump, stood his ground. He insisted the data was solid. Multiple audits later, the result remained.
60 Lawsuits and the "Lack of Evidence" Problem
If you want to know what most people get wrong about the Donald Trump rigged election claims, it’s the courtroom drama. Or rather, the lack of it.
Trump’s legal team, led at various points by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, filed over 60 lawsuits across the country. They went before judges appointed by Democrats, judges appointed by Republicans, and even judges appointed by Trump himself.
The score? 0 for 60 on the big fraud claims.
It wasn't just that they lost; it’s how they lost. In court, you have to provide evidence. You can’t just say "everyone is saying there's fraud." You need names, dates, and specific data points. Time after time, the judges noted that the lawyers weren't even alleging "fraud" in the legal sense when they were actually under oath. They were complaining about "procedural irregularities."
"This Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations... unsupported by evidence." — Judge Matthew Brann, a conservative judge in Pennsylvania.
🔗 Read more: Luigi Mangione Hood: What Really Happened with the Viral Streetwear Connection
Basically, there is a massive gap between what is said on a campaign stage and what can be proven in a court of law.
What About the 2024 Results?
It’s 2026 now. We’ve seen the 2024 election play out. One of the biggest arguments for the 2020 "rigged" theory was the "missing 20 million voters." People like Dinesh D’Souza pointed to the fact that Joe Biden got 81 million votes in 2020, while Kamala Harris didn't reach those numbers in 2024.
"See!" the argument goes. "The 2020 numbers were fake because they didn't show up again."
But political scientists sort of roll their eyes at this. 2020 was a "high-intensity" election. We were in the middle of a pandemic. Mail-in voting was at an all-time high, making it easier than ever to participate.
By 2024, the "Trump-effect" on turnout cut both ways. Some people were tired; others shifted their votes. In fact, many of those "missing" Democrats didn't disappear—they just didn't vote, or they switched to Trump. We saw massive shifts in the Latino vote and among young men. That’s not a "rigged" outcome; that’s just a changing electorate.
The Real "Rigging" vs. Illegal Fraud
We need to make a distinction here. When people say an election is "rigged," they might mean:
- Illegal Fraud: Dead people voting, machines being hacked, or ballots being dumped in a river. (No widespread evidence of this has ever been found).
- Systemic Bias: Gerrymandering, restrictive voting laws, or "dark money" in politics.
In a way, both sides think the system is "rigged"—they just disagree on how. Democrats point to "voter suppression" as a form of rigging. Republicans point to "unsecured mail-in ballots" as a form of rigging.
Donald Trump recently admitted in an interview in early 2026 that he "regrets" not using the National Guard to seize voting machines in 2020. That admission alone has reignited the fire. It suggests that the "rigging" narrative wasn't just a reaction to the results, but a strategy to control the process.
Actionable Insights: How to Verify Election Claims Yourself
If you're tired of being lied to by both sides, here is how you can actually check the facts without relying on a talking head on TV.
✨ Don't miss: Current News About Inflation: What Most People Get Wrong
- Check the "Risk-Limiting Audit" (RLA) results: Most states now perform these. They take a random sample of paper ballots and compare them to the machine totals. If the RLA passes, the math says the outcome is correct.
- Look at the "Canvass": This is the process where every single vote is accounted for. If a county has 10,000 registered voters but 12,000 votes are cast, the canvass will flag it immediately.
- Follow the Secretary of State: These are the people (from both parties) who actually run the show. Their websites usually have the raw data and the security protocols they use.
- Read the Court Filings, Not the Headlines: Websites like CourtListener let you read the actual evidence (or lack thereof) presented in these cases.
The phrase Donald Trump rigged election is going to stay in our lexicon for a long time. It’s part of the American mythos now. But whether you believe the 2020 election was stolen or the 2024 election was a clean sweep, the data shows a system that—while messy and human—is remarkably difficult to actually "rig" on a national scale.
The next time you see a viral video of a "suspicious" suitcase or a "glitching" screen, remember the hand counts. Remember the 60 judges. And remember that in 2026, the same systems that were called "corrupt" in 2020 are the ones that returned Donald Trump to power.
To stay informed on upcoming changes to election laws in your state, you can visit the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to see what bills are currently being debated. If you want to dive deeper into the technical security of voting, the CISA Rumor Control page remains one of the best resources for debunking specific viral myths with technical data.
Next Steps for You:
Check your own voter registration status for the upcoming 2026 midterms. Regardless of your stance on past elections, ensuring your own voice is legally registered is the only way to participate in the "rigging-proof" paper trail of the future.