“President Donald Trump’s stumbling campaign operation has shut down its voter fraud hotline after playing cat-and-mouse for a week with pranksters who flooded ever-changing numbers with mocking “tips,” ABC News reported. Anyone with a complaint can still fill out an online form on the campaign website. But the forms are also being sent in with bogus complaints and “lewd images,” according to ABC News campaign reporter Will Steakin. The Trump campaign is now directing people to its online form instead, which has been flooded with lewd images, per multiple sources— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) November 13, 2020 The president’s son Eric Trump claimed the hotline phone numbers — which were repeatedly switched in a failed bid to outwit pranksters — were being spammed by the Democratic Party. But complaint calls boldly posted on Twitter and TikTok were clearly not the organized work of the Democrats. The @DNC is spamming our voter fraud hotline to bog down the thousands of complaints we are receiving! Wonder what they have to hide.— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) November 7, 2020 A campaign staffer conceded many of the calls were coming from “lefty teenagers,” reported Axios journalist Jonathan Swan. Trump campaign aides manning the “voter fraud hotline” describe mostly fielding prank calls from lefty teenagers and dealing with some disturbing unsolicited adult images.— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) November 9, 2020 Alex Hirsch, creator of the “Gravity Falls” cartoon, posted his report on Twitter of suspicious activities by someone who sounded suspiciously like the McDonald’s Hamburglar. He added helpfully: “I think he’s probably antifa.” I…may just do this all night pic.twitter.com/OFtKDeMBqE— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) November 7, 2020 The hotline has been ditched as the Trump campaign is significantly downsizing staff starting next week. Only a small number of staffers will work through the end of the month, sources told ABC. The campaign has been attacked for baselessly claiming the election was rigged — and then desperately searching for any anecdotes to back up that claim. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced in a joint statement Thursday that the election, in fact, was “the most secure in American history.” In a tweet Friday, Trump both took credit for the “secure” election while also claiming it was rigged.
