Election Day is still six weeks away, but in some states, early voting is already underway. With this in mind, Donald Trump made clear during his latest rally in Pennsylvania that he’s simultaneously both for and against early voting and absentee ballots. NBC News reported:

While those claims were demonstrably wrong, the Republican nevertheless went on to call the existing system “terrible,” even as he encouraged supporters to take advantage of the process he considers “stupid.”

The former president made no effort to address, or even acknowledge, the contradiction, which probably won’t help confused voters.

Even as Republican officials practically beg their party’s voters to take advantage of early voting, Trump can’t seem to make up his mind. Two weeks ago, for example, he condemned mail-in voting as “terrible.” Just three days earlier, however, Trump released a TikTok video encouraging his supporters to take advantage of early voting opportunities, including voting by mail.

That contradicted a related message he pushed a week earlierinsisting that mail-in voting should be abolished altogether. Around the same time, Trump called early voting “ridiculous.”

In July, the former president said Americans should not be “allowed” to vote early, adding that early voting is inherently riggedreality notwithstanding.

A month earlier, Trump endorsed early voting. At a campaign event on May 11, however, the former president condemned mail-in voting

Two days earlier, the Republican released a video online in which he specifically touted “absentee voting” and “early voting,” which was the opposite of what he told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly two weeks earlier.

Six days prior, Trump said the opposite, publishing a message to his online social media platform endorsing “absentee voting” and “early voting.”

As regular readers knowthese incoherent shifts have been ongoing for quite a while. After the 2022 midterm elections, for example, Trump wrote via social media, “YOU CAN NEVER HAVE FAIR & FREE ELECTIONS WITH MAIL-IN BALLOTS — NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.” (In case that was too subtle, one day later, the Republican re-published the missive, adding“NEVER!”)

For a while, it seemed party officials who had the former president’s ear managed to nudge him in a more sensible direction. In February 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported“After years of assailing early voting, Donald Trump is having a change of heart.” The article referenced a recent fundraising appeal Team Trump sent to donors, which said the Republicans’ path forward “is to MASTER the Democrats’ own game.”

A month later, the former president told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference that it was time for Republicans to “change our thinking” on early and mail-in voting. In July 2023, Trump even filmed a videofor the Republican National Committee in support of the party’s early voting initiative.

And then he switched back to his other position.

“Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head,” Trump declared in February 2024, stepping all over his party’s message. “It has to be. The votes. I mean, it has to be.”

He’s since changed his mind — several times.

This is more than just a point of curiosity: The Republican base has absolutely no idea what to think about absentee balloting and voting by mail, and the former president’s followers apparently have no idea which of his competing messages to believe.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”