As President Donald Trump’s chances of re-election are sagging on Wednesday, the president declared himself a winner in the presidential election on Wednesday despite projections showing he is trailing Joe Biden in the Electoral College.
As of Wednesday evening, Biden holds a 248-214 advantage in the Electoral College. Biden also holds an advantage in Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. If Biden hangs on and wins those states, he’ll have a projected 270 Electoral College, which is exactly the number needed to win.
Twitter has recently updated its policy regarding misinformation involving the election, and as of 2 p.m. ET Thursday, Trump had his Twitter account flagged eight times for misinformation.
STOP THE FRAUD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2020
Twitter said last month that it would “label or remove false or misleading information intended to intimidate or dissuade people from participating in an election or other civic process.”
Twitter added it would flag or remove tweets of “disputed claims that could undermine faith in the process itself, such as unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results; and misleading claims about the results or outcome of a civic process which calls for or could lead to interference with the implementation of the results of the process, e.g. claiming victory before election results have been certified, inciting unlawful conduct to prevent the procedural or practical implementation of election results (note that our violent threats policy may also be relevant for threats not covered by this policy).”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump complained that he had a solid leadin many key states and that “one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted.” In several states, namely Wisconsin and Michigan, which Biden now leads, Trump had leads in those states at times last night. But those states have been counting mail-in ballots since late last night, which takes longer to count than in-person voting. Biden has held a significant advantage among those who voted by mail, compared to Trump who had an advantage on votes cast on Election Day.
Some of the offending tweets are obscured with the following message, "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process."
Also on Wednesday, Trump tweeted about how 500,000 votes in key states, like Pennsylvania and Michigan, were at risk.
Trump also voiced his concerns via Twitter that ballots shouldn't be counted after Election Day and claims that he'll challenge states who declared Biden a winner for voter fraud.
Others involved in Trump’s campaign, including White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Eric Trump, have also had misleading tweets flagged by Twitter.