Fact check: Trump’s false claim that California ‘just stopped’ counting its 2024 votes

Washington — President Donald Trump keeps making false claims about not only the 2020 election he lost but the 2024 election he won.

When a Fox News anchor noted to Trump, in an interview segment that aired Monday, that Vice President Kamala Harris received 75 million votes in the 2024 election, Trump interjected to say, “Well, if you believe the whole thing … the whole thing is ridiculous.” Like Trump’s 2024 total of more than 77 million votes, Harris’ vote total is simple fact – not a theory to be believed or dismissed.

Then, in a social media post on Tuesday, Trump claimed that “California just stopped counting their votes on the 2024 Presidential Election.”

Not true.

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California does, for a variety of reasons, take notably long to finish its vote counts. But its Secretary of State Shirley Weber certified its 2024 presidential results on December 13, nearly two months ago. Individual California counties certified their own presidential results on December 3.

The Electoral College voted to confirm Trump’s victory over Harris on December 17, Congress counted the electoral votes on January 6 and Trump was inaugurated as president on January 20.

Harris beat Trump in the state by about 20 percentage points, more than three million votes.

The White House did not respond to a CNN request to explain Trump’s claim. But Trump has lied for years about elections in Democratic-dominated California, which he has baselessly called “rigged.” During the 2024 campaign, he wrongly said that he only loses elections in California because of dishonest vote-counting.