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Former US President Donald Trump voted Tuesday in Palm Beach, Florida, as Americans across the country decide whether to cast their ballots for him or Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Republican candidate said he was feeling confident, and that he believed he “went in with a very big lead today,” an apparent nod to early signs that many more Republicans appear to have voted early in this election than did in 2020, although no vote counts have been released.
Asked by reporters whether he would accept defeat should Harris win, Trump said he “would be the first one to acknowledge it,” but, he caveated, only if the election was fair.
Trump added that if he lost, he believed there would be no violence, because his supporters “are not violent people.”
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has donated an estimated $120 million to help elect Trump, will spend election night at Mar-a-Lago, The New York Times reported, and will be part of “a small group” of people watching the results along with the former president.
The Times reported that Trump was hosting several parties for his donors at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night, and will later address a gathering at the Palm Beach Convention Center.
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When asked by reporters whether he had voted in favor of a ballot measure to institute a six-week abortion ban in Florida, Trump pivoted, reiterating that states should decide on abortion rules, and that Republicans “did a great job” in overturning Roe v. Wade and ending the federal right to abortion.
Trump also criticized the fact that some counties use voting machines instead of paper ballots, which, he said, might slow down results in some key swing states. “They use these very expensive computers… in Pennsylvania, they won’t have an answer till two or three days from now. I think it’s an absolute outrage, if that’s the case,” he said. In 2020, some of Trump’s allies and conservative media outlets suggested without evidence that some voting machines had been tampered with to deliver votes to Joe Biden — claims that led to multiple legal challenges and the departure of long-time Fox host Tucker Carlson from the network.