Like any demagogue, Donald Trump employs different lies for different needs. But dishonesty is the core of his existence. The Republican Party has had a more tumultuous conversion experience to Trumpism. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, has had to revise his condemnation of Trump as a “pathological liar” to suit the demands of a party in which lies, pathological and otherwise, have become increasingly valued currency.
That’s the context in which to understand a video by the Heritage Foundation, which surfaced recently. Heritage, the home of Project 2025, the authoritarian blueprint for a second, aspirationally permanent, MAGA reign, fancies itself a think tank. But Heritage has a long history of propaganda about voter fraud, which is the subject of the video.
A credible think tank would analyze facts and produce a response based on reality — albeit with its own ideological spin. No part of that process serves MAGA interests in stoking doubt about election outcomes or generating fear of Democrats manipulating the vote through wireless thermostats, Chinese bamboo-laced ballots, Italian satellites or other forms of magic that both the addled and unprincipled in MAGA ranks find so compelling. The claim that hordes of noncitizens are risking deportation to cast a felonious drop into an electoral sea of more than 150 million votes is no less deranged. (As a rule, all imaginary votes cast by noncitizens are cast for Democrats.)
Trump may be Liar Supreme, but Heritage preceded the former president into the voter-fraud game. Indeed, Heritage has spent decades engaged in “analysis” of voter fraud, raising allegations, questions, doubts and fears. Yet Heritage has steadfastly refused to get a firm grip on its topic.
Years of foundation labor have produced an “election fraud” database, which the group posts on its website. The database, Heritage states, represents just a “sampling” of fraud. Heritage simply won’t finish the job and produce a comprehensive list. It’s not hard to understand why. A less slapdash approach would merely confirm what credible research and election audits have found: Claims of significant voter fraud are utterly false.