During the 2024 election campaign, President-elect Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims about Democratic “cheating” and voter fraud. However, once he was announced as the winner early Wednesday, these allegations ceased entirely.

On Tuesday afternoon, while votes were still being cast, Trump took to social media to assert that there was “massive cheating” happening in Philadelphia.

“There’s a lot of chatter about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia. Law Enforcement is on the way!!!” he posted. In another post, he mentioned law enforcement responding similarly in Detroit.

Authorities in both cities quickly worked to assure voters that no evidence of cheating or fraud existed.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner stated on Tuesday that there was “no factual basis whatsoever” for Trump’s claims.

Since the election results were announced, Trump has refrained from commenting on fraud.

The shift in Trump’s rhetoric following his victory highlights that his fraud allegations lacked merit, according to David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonprofit that collaborates with election officials from both parties to enhance confidence in electoral processes.

“The issue was never about whether our electoral system was truly secure. It was always about the outcome of the election,” Becker remarked.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden emphasized that Americans should put to rest any doubts regarding the integrity of elections after Trump decisively won in 2024.

“I hope we can finally settle the debate over the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, fair, transparent, and trustworthy, regardless of who wins,” Biden stated during remarks from the Rose Garden.

Claire Zunk, the RNC’s Director of Election Integrity Communications, did not respond to inquiries regarding Trump’s abrupt silence on fraud or whether he still believes it occurred, but provided a statement praising the RNC’s efforts.

“President Trump highlighted significant issues within our election system leading up to Election Day, and we remain proactive and alert on the ground,” Zunk stated. “That’s why the RNC and Trump Campaign established an unprecedented election integrity initiative — to address problems prior to the election and be prepared as votes were cast and counted. We reacted in real time, safeguarded our elections, and ensured legal votes were protected.”

Doubt cast on Pennsylvania and Michigan until Trump won them

At a rally in Pennsylvania the day before the election, Trump spent 20 minutes alerting attendees about potential fraud in the state.

“They are making every effort to steal this election,” he claimed. “Look at what’s happening in your state; every day there are talks about extending voting hours. Who even hears about things like this?”

On Election Day, Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani informed reporters that “if there is no fraud in Philadelphia and Detroit, then there is no election; they do it even when they don’t need to, just to practice.”

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have yet to contest the results in Philadelphia, where Trump received 20% of the vote, or in Detroit, where he garnered around 8% of the total. Final results will remain uncertified until confirmed by the state.

Trump’s pattern of unfounded fraud allegations

This isn’t Trump’s first experience with making baseless claims. During the 2016 primaries, he accused his Republican rival Ted Cruz (R-Texas) of “fraud” after Cruz’s victory in the Iowa caucuses. He also labeled the primary in Colorado as “rigged.” After he won the Electoral College but not the popular vote in the general election, he consistently made allegations of fraud, all without presenting any supporting evidence.

“I won the popular vote if you exclude the millions who voted illegally,” he stated on social media – again, without any evidence.

Trump’s repeatedly discredited assertions that the 2020 election was stolen from him played a significant role in his 2024 campaign, frequently referenced during his rally speeches. This year, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee combined to file 175 lawsuits pre-election regarding issues such as alleged noncitizens appearing on voter rolls, a move many viewed as a way to pave the way for contesting the election results.

A wish for Trump’s victory to calm his backers

Polls indicated that a majority of Trump’s supporters were considerably more likely than those of Vice President Kamala Harris to suspect that election fraud would occur.

He expressed hope that Trump’s victory would mark the start of “some restoration of sanity” concerning the perception of safety and security in American elections.

Becker remarked, “It’s absurd that some people believe the ridiculous notion that Joe Biden managed to rig an election while Trump was in office, leading the executive branch. If Trump couldn’t manipulate the election as President, it exposes the reality of our electoral system.”

Meanwhile, some far-right individuals are asserting that Trump’s 2024 win is evidence that the 2020 election was fraudulent. They draw comparisons between the 80 million votes Biden garnered in 2020 and the approximately 60 million votes counted for Vice President Kamala Harris as of Wednesday morning, claiming this 20 million vote gap indicates election fraud by Democrats in 2020.

However, this comparison is misleading, as it contrasts finalized 2020 election results with ongoing 2024 vote counts.

Millions of mail-in ballots are still being verified. Although these uncounted votes won’t alter the overall results, the final tallies for Harris and Trump are still unofficial and will likely rise by several million. For instance, Harris’s vote count had surpassed 69 million by Friday morning, an increase from the 60 million reported on Wednesday when the far-right allegations surfaced. Several Democratic-leaning states, such as California, are still processing mail ballots.

Conservative commentator Benny Johnson labeled the vote count discrepancy from 2020 to 2024 as “very sus,” which is slang for suspicious. Additionally, former Ohio Republican congressional candidate J.R. Majewski stated that this result indicates “2020 was a stolen election.”

“Kamala has received 60 million votes in 2024,” Dinesh D’Souza posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday. “Can anyone truly assert that Biden received 80 million in 2020? Where have those 20 million Democratic voters vanished? The reality is, they never existed.”

After winning the 2016 election, Trump formed a panel to investigate allegations of election fraud, only to dissolve it in 2018 when it found no significant evidence of corruption in U.S. elections.

On Friday, Trump suggested he might continue to address election fraud issues. In a post on Truth Social criticizing California Governor Gavin Newsom, he stated, “As an ‘AGENT’ for the United States of America on Voting & Elections, I will DEMAND that VOTER I.D. and PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP are essential parts of the voting process!”