Isaac SchorrApr 22nd, 2026, 2:07 pm

President Donald Trump deemed the Virginia referendum on a ballot question to allow the state to push through a heavy-handed Democratic gerrymander in Old Dominion a “RIGGED ELECTION” in a furious Wednesday afternoon Truth Social post.

“A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop!’ Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory!” wrote the president while referencing his unfounded claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. “Six [Democratic-leaning congressional districts] to five [Republican-leaning districts] goes to ten to one, and yet the Presidential Election in November was very close to a 50-50 split. In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive. As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.'”

While Trump strenuously objected to the Democrats’ mid-decade gerrymander in Virginia, he had previously urged Republicans in Indiana and Texas to take up similar projects.

Shortly before he sounded off, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, James Blair, took to CNN to argue that the results of the referendum suggest the GOP may heavily outperform expectations in November.

“This is a state in November of 2025 that went by 15 points to the Democrats for governor and about eight points for attorney general. Last night, this was a three-point race. That’s actually a three-point overperformance of the Trump 2024 historic performance in Virginia,” Blair told Dana Bash. “So just as a baseline for all the Democrats crowing this morning. If Republicans perform anywhere near on average the way they did in Virginia last night, we not only add seats to the Senate, but we add seats to the House, and we have a historic midterm.”

The operative is currently on a leave of absence from the White House to run Trump’s midterm political operation.

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