President Donald Trump said the 2020 presidential election should be “permanently wiped from the books” if fraud allegations against the Southern Poverty Law Center are proven in court.
Trump made the statement on Friday on Truth Social after reports that the U.S. Department of Justice charged the SPLC in a fraud case involving alleged payments to extremist groups.
Calling the SPLC “one of the greatest political scams in American history,” Trump wrote that if the charges are true, the 2020 election should be erased from legitimacy.
He also referred to the case as another “Democrat Hoax” and linked it to separate allegations involving ActBlue.
According to the report, federal prosecutors allege the SPLC made roughly $3 million in payments between 2014 and 2023 to individuals tied to extremist organizations.
Those groups allegedly included the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, the National Socialist Movement, United Klans of America, and Unite the Right.
The government claims the payments were used to generate or inflame extremist activity that the SPLC could later cite in fundraising appeals and public campaigns.
One allegation centers on the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
The indictment reportedly claims an informant connected to SPLC payments helped coordinate transportation for attendees.
That rally became nationally known after violent clashes and torch-bearing white supremacist marches.
Then-candidate Joe Biden frequently referenced Charlottesville during the 2020 campaign and said it helped motivate his decision to run for president.
Trump’s argument appears to be that if the rally’s organization was secretly influenced by paid operatives, then a major political narrative used against him in 2020 was tainted.
The DOJ, according to the report, said the case is about fraud rather than politics.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC publicly claimed to fight white supremacy while allegedly helping manufacture extremism through paid sources.
He said there was “nothing political” about the investigation.
SPLC official Bryan Fair said the organization was being targeted for past use of confidential informants to gather intelligence on violent groups, per Breitbart News.
No conviction has occurred, and charges remain allegations unless proven in court.
Trump’s call to wipe the 2020 election “from the books” carries no immediate legal effect.
Presidential elections cannot simply be nullified years later through social media statements.
Even if misconduct by outside organizations were proven, constitutional mechanisms for overturning a completed election after inauguration are extremely limited. Politically, however, the statement reinforces Trump’s long-running claim that the 2020 election was illegitimate.
