In October 2026, a screenshot of an alleged post from U.S. President Donald Trump's Truth Social account spread online, showing Trump seemingly thanking billionaire Elon Musk for artificially increasing Republican votes ahead of the November 2026 midterms.
The purported post (archived) stated:
Republicans must WIN the 2026 Midterm Elections, and we must use every appropriate tool—Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail, or in-person, we must "swamp" the Radical Left Dummods with massive turnout! THANKS TO THE GREAT ELON MUSK EVERY REPUBLICAN VOTE COUNTS AS 3 VOTES! SO IMPORTANT - PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE, AND MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump on Truth Social)
The above post is a doctored version of a real Truth Social post from Trump's account. The yellow highlighted line about Musk was edited into the post. As such, we rate this image as fake.
On Oct. 3, 2026, Trump wrote (archived) the following post on Truth Social. The fake highlighted line about Musk was added after "we must "swamp" the Radical Left Dumocrats with massive turnout!":
Republicans must WIN the 2026 Midterm Elections, and we must use every appropriate tool — Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail, or in-person, we must "swamp" the Radical Left Dumocrats with massive turnout! SO IMPORTANT — PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP
swampthevoteusa.com/
(@realDonaldTrump on Truth Social)
The post in the screenshot is clearly edited, based on the nonsense phrase "Dummods" which appears to be a garbled version of "Dumocrats."
Snopes also looked up variations of the phrase on Trump's Truth, a website that archives his posts "every few minutes" and makes it easier to find them — including deleted posts. There was no evidence of Trump thanking Musk on Truth Social for making "every Republican vote" count as three votes.
Trump has been speaking at campaign rallies nationwide, trying to drum up support for Republican candidates ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections.
For further reading, Snopes has debunked numerous posts falsely attributed to Trump over the years.