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Molly Butler / Media Matters

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Since becoming RNC co-chair, Lara Trump has repeatedly pushed election denial and conspiracy theories on her podcast

Written by Justin Horowitz

Published

Since becoming co-chair of the Republican National Committee on March 8, right-wing commentator Lara Trump has repeatedly pushed election denial and conspiracy theories on her Right View podcast, which is streamed on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Rumble. 

As RNC co-chair, Lara Trump has overseen job cuts of longtime staffers and transformed the organization to directly support her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, in his presidential campaign and many legal fights. She has also worked to align the RNC with far-right political and media figures, including conservative youth organization and extremist hub Turning Point USA, former Trump strategist and January 6 coup plotter Steve Bannon, and QAnon conspiracy theorist Scott Presler. 

On her show, Lara Trump and her guests have repeatedly denied the fact that President Joe Biden won 81 million votes during the 2020 election, suggested that Democrats are already preparing to “cheat” in 2024, and invoked talking points from the white nationalist-linked “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which argues that Democrats are allowing immigrants to cross the border so that they will “replace” white citizens and vote for Democratic candidates.

  • Lara Trump denied that Biden received 81 million votes during the 2020 presidential election. She said, “They always have the same play, ‘Oh, well, there’s no proof’ — 81 million people were not so inspired by a guy that campaigned out of his basement and could barely string a couple of sentences coherently together that they came out in the most historical fashion to vote for him. I don’t even think that the Democrats buy that.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 6/18/24]

  • Without evidence, Lara Trump suggested that Democrats “cheat at the ballot box,” “do crazy things with drop boxes,” and “allow illegals to vote.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 6/5/24]

  • Lara Trump claimed that Democrats are “trying to sway the election and rig it in every single state.” She added, “We know how they play this game, we are looking at it every single day and we are fighting it every single day and we are also, as a party, playing the game differently this time.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 6/4/24]

  • During a May 24 episode, Lara Trump invited neo-Nazi collaborator and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec onto her podcast to push election denial. [Media Matters, 5/29/24; YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 5/23/24]

  • Lara Trump pushed a conspiracy theory that Biden “is obviously banking on illegals voting in this election to get him over the line.” Echoing the white nationalist “great replacement” theory, Trump said it’s “pretty obvious” that Biden is allowing migrants to cross the border to vote for him for president, adding, “That’s the whole goal.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 5/1/24]

  • During an April 17 episode, Lara Trump argued that Biden did not receive 81 million votes during the 2020 election. Trump added, “I do fully believe that there was some nefarious activity that occurred in 2020. … I do believe we were caught off guard. We had no idea you could cheat in the ways that actually happened in 2020, so now, we're looking out for all of them.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 4/17/24]

  • Speaking to Breitbart’s Alex Marlow and Emma-Jo Morris, Lara Trump pushed a conspiracy theory that Democrats will use bird flu as an excuse to change voting laws and “steal” the 2024 election. Trump argued, “We all know that we're just waiting for something to happen to affect the election on November 5, to affect the outcome and the ease of voting or the method of voting, those sort of things. To me, there’s no surprise that all of a sudden we started talking about a bird flu.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 4/9/24]

  • Lara Trump pushed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and suggested Democrats are allowing migrants to cross the border into the country “because they want voters.” Turning Point USA contributor and former Apprentice contestant Erin Elmore agreed with Trump’s conspiracy theory, arguing that Democrats are allowing migrants to cross the border for “no other reason than getting voters, unless they just tacitly want the destruction of America.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 3/26/24]

  • While discussing early voting, Lara Trump pushed a conspiracy theory that Democrats will try to “cheat” during the 2024 election. Trump said, “The first day of early voting, when you go vote, bank that vote, get them in there to vote every day thereafter. We need people doing that so that as we go into Election Day on November 5, we overwhelm the Democrats with the number of votes for Donald Trump so that it doesn’t matter, it’s impossible for them to cheat. No matter how hard they’re trying in these different locations, it will be impossible.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 3/13/24]

  • During a March 12 episode, PragerU host and right-wing country singer Alexis Wilkins also invoked the great replacement theory, claiming that Democrats are “importing illegal immigrants that they can use as a barter chip to vote in elections.” [YouTube, The Right View with Lara Trump, 3/12/24]