Trump says he will respect midterm results ‘if they’re honest elections’

President Trump said on Tuesday that he will respect next week’s midterm results “if they’re honest elections” amid growing concerns from Democrats over his pre-election rhetoric.

Trump made the comments at Joint Base Andrews before departing for a campaign trip to Texas.

On Monday, Trump warned in a TruthSocial post that he is “watching closely” for voter fraud in Minnesota’s Senate race, which has become one of the more competitive races of the cycle.

“Let’s all get behind Michele Tafoya in Minnesota. She’s running a great race. Don’t allow them to play with the Votes after the race is over,” Trump wrote. “The Federal Government will be watching closely.”

“The only way she can lose is if they cheat by playing games with the Ballots as they come in,” he added.

The comment was met with swift backlash from Minnesota Democrats, including Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who accused the president of “laying the groundwork” to “steal” the election.

“He’s blatantly laying the groundwork to steal an election if his chosen candidate doesn’t win… Minnesota will not take kindly to thinly veiled threats from a guy we’ve rejected three times (soon to be four),” Smith posted on the social platform X.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit saying it would block the results of Alaska’s Senate race if incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) loses his reelection bid, accusing another candidate in the race — Dan J. Sullivan — of running to intentionally confuse voters.

Attorney General Todd Blanche vehemently defended the lawsuit during a contentious interview on CNN on Sunday.

“What he [Trump] has said repeatedly, repeatedly, is that the reason why this is not fair — this is not a fair fight in his mind — is because there is a man on the ballot with the same name as the incumbent senator, who happens to be a Republican,” Blanche told the network.

“There could be a crime. But the real wrong here is that Alaskans are going to be confused and will not have their vote heard,” he said.