Editor’s note, September 23, 2026: As we barrel toward the midterm elections, Donald Trump is lashing out against the press, the Democrats, and even his fellow Republicans, as in the statement he gave to Punchbowl News last month, referring to his most faithful supporters:
If I [am not running], will those people go out and vote? And that’s the one thing I can’t do. I’m going to ask them to.… The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you.… They’re angry at Republicans, but they’re not angry at me.
If nothing else, the 47th POTUS remains resolutely on-brand as a malignant narcissist. But just as he has proven to be a hawk for forever wars, despite years of campaign promises to the contrary, as well as famously avoiding the Vietnam War-era draft with a dodgy diagnosis of bone spurs, he is also a hypocrite about voting.
As investigative reporter Bill Bastone reported in 1987, the real estate nepo-baby complained mightily about local pols, but could rarely be bothered to exercise his fundamental right to vote. And for someone who has been making false claims about voter fraud for over a decade now, Trump didn’t have a problem listing his dad’s Queens address as his own for voting purposes; he hadn’t lived there for years, splitting his time between residences in Trump Tower and Greenwich, Connecticut.
Below, more facts on Trump’s formative years as a perpetual whiner and congenital cheat.
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This article from the archives is part of an ongoing series celebrating the Voice’s Platinum Anniversary — seven decades! The first issue appeared on the streets of NYC on October 26, 1955.
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Trump: All Talk, No Votes
By William Bastone
Originally published: June 23, 1987
Donald Trump likes to lecture about how Ed Koch is duping the public and how, under the mayor’s leadership, the city has begun to fall apart. The developer/civics instructor talks a good game — and he has the newspaper clips to prove it — but when it comes to stepping into a voting booth, Trump falls silent.
Board of Elections records reveal that Trump, since registering as a Republican in October 1969, has voted a total of 10 times. Since the 1976 presidential election, Trump has only voted three times. During this 11-year period, Trump has sat out the following races:
- General elections for mayor, city council president, comptroller, and borough president in 1977, 1981, and 1985. As a Republican, Trump was eligible to vote in his party’s primaries in those years as well. He missed them too.
- Gubernatorial general elections in 1982 and 1986 as well as a Republican primary for governor in 1982.
- State Senate and Assembly races in 1982 and 1986 as well as city council races in 1977, 1982, and 1985.
Since he registered to vote, Trump has had more than 40 separate opportunities to vote on Election Day. These elections involved more than 150 offices and hundreds of candidates.
Trump, 41, registers to vote out of his father’s home on Midland Parkway, Jamaica, but he has not lived there for years. His drivers license also carries the Queens address, but the developer actually splits his time between his pied-à-terre in Trump Tower and his mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut.
State election law states that the address a voter registers from must be that voter’s legal residence. While Trump is technically violating this provision, this kind of deception is so widespread — among regular voters and elected office holders — prosecutions are unheard of.
According to a study by State Senator Franz Leichter, Trump appears to prefer to vote with his money. The developer has given more money — almost $250,000 — in the past five years to members of the Board of Estimates than any other individual.
Trump recently called for Koch to quit (“he can’t hack it anymore,” the developer has said), and was spurred by the mayor’s handling of negotiations to keep NBC from moving its headquarters to New Jersey, instead of to Trump’s Television City site on the West Side. The New Jersey property NBC is considering is owned by Leonard Stern, who also owns the Voice as well. Trump has also called for a special counsel to investigate the mayor’s role in the Myerson/Capasso/Gabel scandal that broke last week.
On Monday, the Post reported that Republican leaders have decided to ask Trump to oppose Koch for reelection in 1989. A Trump spokesman told the Post that the developer “has no thoughts about running for mayor whatsoever.” The Voice could not reach Trump for comment about his lackluster voting record.
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∼ ∼ ∼ This article is part of a series — History Bites — which explores U.S. and world history, politics, pop culture, and the arts to illustrate how the past illuminates the present. ∼ ∼ ∼
