Trump Says Putin Agrees With Him That US Should Not Have Mail-in Voting: ‘Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting’
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-putin-agrees-with-him-us-should-not-have-mail-in-voting-2025-08-16/
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WASHINGTON, Aug 15 (Reuters):
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agrees with him that letting voters send in ballots by mail puts honest elections at risk.
“Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” after a nearly three-hour meeting between the leaders in Alaska. “He said there’s not a country in the world that uses it now.”
Trump, who promoted the false narrative that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 election, cited his agreement with Putin over absentee voting as he pressed his fellow Republicans to try harder to advance overhauls to the U.S. voting system that he has long sought.
**Trump has voted by mail in some previous elections and urged his supporters to do so in 2024.**
Putin, who has been Russia’s president or prime minister since 1999, was elected to another term in office with 87% of the vote in a 2024 election that drew allegations of vote rigging from some independent polling observers, opposition voices and Western governments. The most formidable opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic penal colony in 2024.
Russia’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his conversation with Trump.
The Russian president has previously said some U.S. elections were marred by fraudulent voting, without presenting evidence. The position mirrors Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud following the 2020 election.
Justice Department and Senate investigations found that Moscow tried to influence campaigns to help Trump win in the 2016 election. U.S. intelligence officials have said they believe Russia tried to do the same in 2020 elections and preferred Trump to win in 2024.
Trump and some of his top aides long have asserted that he and his presidential campaigns were falsely accused of colluding with Russia, a claim he brought up again in Alaska on Friday. The U.S. intelligence community never reached such a conclusion.
Trump, who has not ruled out seeking a third term in office despite a constitutional prohibition, on Friday showed impatience with Republicans for not prioritizing election reform legislation.
“The Republicans want it, but not strongly enough,” Trump said during the interview. “You can’t have a great democracy with mail-in voting.”
Some Republicans, echoing Trump’s claims, argue that changes like restricting absentee voting and requiring identification could reduce the risks of ballot tampering, impersonation or other forms of fraud that independent analysts say is rare.
Nearly three dozen countries from Canada to Germany and South Korea allow some form of postal vote, though more than half of them place some restrictions on which voters qualify, according to the Sweden-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental advocacy group.
The Trump administration has stepped back from commenting on the fairness or integrity of elections conducted by many foreign countries in a significant departure from Washington’s traditional approach of promoting democratic elections overseas.
Trump rapes kids
No, Putin is not meddling in US elections at all.
Cuck.
I like main-in voting, wind mills, and leaders who are not mass murderers, fascists, and/or pedophiles.
Yeah, because no one is more of a champion of democracy than Vladimir Putin lol.
It’d be nice if Trump could stop being a loathsome embarrassment at all hours of the day for a little bit.
Then give us a federal holiday to vote, because I can’t afford to miss a day of work. Oh, that’s right, we don’t work enough, we’re “lazy”.
WTF? Why is he taking advice from a leader of a hostile country that conducts daily cyberattacks on us and funds enemy combatants?
Treasonous fuck
Hey PEDOTUS you had one job and it wasn’t talking about elections.
Russia Russia Russia. Trumps trusted advisor is a war criminal. Lovely
What a fucking clown show.
Putin can’t have a fair election in person. [Widespread ballot stuffing in his last election.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oSeRyaFllY).
This is absolutely embarassing. Putin humiliated USA on world stage.
Nobody knows more about fair elections than Putin! Great guy!
First, trump is certainly proven to be a pedophile in the Epstein files.
Next, this is the first direct shot I’ve heard trump make at disrupting the next election.
Why the hell did that even come up?! They should have been talking about ENDING the war in Ukraine. Period.
Because mail in voting is harder to hack and steal so of course they don’t like it!
Let’s talk about two things. Let’s talk about ending the war in Ukraine and let’s talk about the Epstein files. We cannot Stop talking about the Epstein Files people. Even this Putin meeting was a sham….anything to get us off the main topic since he didn’t do a damn thing today.
Yes because putin knows a thing or two about fair and free elections… Jfc you guys {The United States} are f*ed
What the actual fuck.
I feel like 1980s America would be kicking Donald’s ass right now.
That honestly should be considered an endorsement of mail-in voting
He’s openly rigging the midterms so he can’t lose power.
Hey everyone, just a reminder that Trump became besties with Epstein in 1987 which was also the year he flew out to Moscow to hang out with some super cool Soviets and came back only to publish an expensive full page ad in the New York Times about how America pays too much to help defend Europe during the Cold War.
Taking advice on how to run a democracy from Putin.
How far we’ve fallen.
Can the person controlling this simulation, please get it over with and end this game. No one is having any fun.
Get this traitor out of our White House
Trump may be the most gullible, most easily manipulated person ever.
Ladies, Bill Cosby told me you really shouldn’t drink from any container that has a lid on it.
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