President Donald Trump’s campaign has been forced to repeatedly change its voter fraud hotline number in a fruitless effort to avoid prank calls.
The campaign is relying on the hotline to find incidents that might actually back up Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. Instead, the hotline has become a particular favourite of TikTok pranksters and others who share it on social media.
One TikTok caller attempted to report apparently nefarious doings by an “obese turtle that has rolled over on its back,” referring to journalist Anderson Cooper’s controversial description of Trump last week.
Alex Hirsch, creator of the “Gravity Falls” cartoon, posted one of his calls to the hotline on Twitter. He reported suspicious activities by someone who sounded suspiciously like McDonald’s Hamburglar, adding helpfully: “I think he’s probably antifa.”
Hirsch also called in the voice of one of his characters, Stan Pines, boasting about vote-stealing. (Listen to the video up top.)
Lara Trump, for one, is not amused. Eric Trump’s wife scolded Americans for not taking voter fraud seriously in a tweet announcing yet another new hotline number.
“Keep spamming,” she taunted. “We will keep changing the number.”
Critics on Twitter had a few things to say about that.
A few turned the tables on the Trump administration, calling out efforts to hobble the US Postal Service and to “subvert democracy with disinformation and lies.”