Donald Trump makes stunning reversal in his election strategy

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday officially got behind his supporters using mail-in ballots and voting early in the November election with the launch of an initiative dubbed 'Swamp the Vote USA.' 'Many Republicans like to vote on Election Day and we must swamp the radical Democrats with massive turnout on Tuesday, November 5,' Trump said.

The ex-president and presumptive Republican nominee filmed a video at Mar-a-Lago where he explained that he still wanted elections to be conducted only on Election Day with paper ballots and voter ID. However, that's not how current election laws stand. 'But until then, Republicans must win,' Trump said. 'And we must use every appropriate tool available to beat the Democrats, they are destroying our country.'

The website, SwampTheVoteUSA.com , which was launched in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, allows Trump supporters to pledge to vote absentee, early, or on Election Day. It even allows them to obtain a mail-in ballot. 'Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail or in-person we are going to protect the vote,' Trump pledged.

The former president continued to foment the so-called 'big lie,' that Trump was robbed of a second term in 2020 due to widespread Democratic voter fraud - of which there is no evidence. In the video Trump mentioned 'we never want what happened in 2020 to happen again.' 'Keep you eyes open because these people want to cheat and they do cheat and frankly it's the only thing they do well,' the ex-president continued. 'The way you win is to swamp them, if we swamp them, they can't cheat, it just doesn't work out,' Trump added.

Ahead of Election Day 2020, Trump complained about the widespread use of mail-in ballots, with states passing more permissive election laws pertaining to absentee voting due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With that, Republican supporters of Trump were more wary of using mail-in ballots, while Democrats pushed their voters to send their ballots in early. Additionally, some states passed laws where mail-in ballot counting couldn't start until Election Day.

That resulted in Trump being the early leader in a number of battleground states, only for President Joe Biden to pull ahead, as it took longer to count the paper ballots then in-person Election Day votes. In the hours after polls closed around the country, Trump falsely claimed there had been widespread fraud, pointing to the mail-in ballots. 

'We were getting ready to win this election, frankly we did win this election,' he said from the White House after the pivotal state of Arizona had already been called for Biden by Fox News. 'We want all voting to stop,' the then-president continued. 'We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning and add them to the list.'

But since Trump launched his third White House bid in November 2022, a number of Republicans have pleaded with the ex-president to get on board with mail-in and early voting, as Election Day turnout could be impacted by a number of factors - including the weather.

'But if you can't make it,' Trump said of Election Day, 'you need to make a plan, register and vote any way possible.' 'We need to get your vote,' the ex-president added, saying that November 5 would become 'the most important day in the history of our country.'

Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Hit the follow button above for more of the news you need.