Maricopa County didn’t apologize to Trump after uncovering fraud in 2020 election, despite claims

Claim:

Arizona’s Maricopa County Elections allegedly apologized to U.S. President Donald Trump after officials supposedly uncovered evidence that state leaders ordered the destruction of thousands of Trump ballots during the 2020 election while concurrently tallying illegal votes cast by noncitizens for Joe Biden.

Rating:

As the 2026 midterm elections approach, social media users have circulated a viral rumor claiming that Maricopa County election administrators in Arizona issued a formal apology to Donald Trump. According to the fabricated story, this came after a review of the 2020 presidential race—which concluded with Joe Biden winning the state by a margin of just under 11,000 votes—revealed major malfeasance.

The hoax asserted that state officials presented proof indicating that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (now Arizona’s governor) and former House Speaker Rusty Bowers directed workers to deliberately destroy tens of thousands of ballots marked for Trump. Furthermore, the claim alleged they orchestrated the counting of thousands of ballots illegally cast by undocumented immigrants to boost Biden’s totals.

Numerous readers reached out to inquire about the validity of this viral narrative.

The claim is entirely fabricated. A thorough search for verification yields zero credible reports indicating that Maricopa County election authorities ever apologized to Trump regarding widespread ballot tampering in 2020. Instead, investigations trace the origin of the post to an online account notorious for spreading similar electoral misinformation, including a prior debunked rumor regarding Georgia’s 2020 vote tally.

Users spreading the narrative have shared identical boilerplate text leaning heavily into Trump’s frequent allegations of a “stolen election.” However, comprehensive investigations by outlets like The Associated Press into battleground states have consistently found no proof of widespread, outcome-altering fraud.

Inquiries were sent to Maricopa County Elections and the White House seeking official confirmation regarding the non-existent apology, and updates will be provided should further statements become available.

Investigating the Origins of the Rumor

Comprehensive searches across major search engines—including Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google, and Yahoo—returned no legitimate news coverage from mainstream or conservative media outlets validating the claim.

Rather than factual reporting, the search results revealed widespread cross-platform sharing on networks like Facebook, Gettr, and X. The viral post typically read:

🚨#BREAKING: The Maricopa County Board of Elections has issued an apology to President Trump, claiming that local officials presented evidence that then Secretary of State (now Governor) Katie Hobbs and then Speaker of the Arizona House Rusty Bowers personally ordered them to destroy tens of thousands of mail-in ballots for President Trump and to count tens of thousands cast by illegal aliens for Joe Biden in Arizona’s largest county during the 2020 election.

This is described as outcome-determinative fraud by those entrusted to conduct, oversee, and certify the vote; Hobbs and Bowers are alleged to have been paid by at least three hostile foreign governments, the George Soros Open Society Foundation, and the DNC in exchange for rigging the 2020 election in Arizona.

Simply put, there is now irrefutable and indisputable proof that President Trump won the state in that stolen election, spoken by the very people who counted the ballots.

LOCK THESE TREASONOUS CROOKS UP NOW! 💪🏻🔥🇺🇸

Notably, the posts frequently misidentify the local agency as the “Maricopa County Board of Elections,” a non-existent entity. The official agency is designated as Maricopa County Elections, with the official municipal site noting that local voting processes are managed jointly by the County Board of Supervisors and the County Recorder.

Tracing the Source

Platform searches indicate the text originated from an account belonging to Joshua Hall (@JoshHall2024), who published the claim on March 19. Court records and Department of Justice announcements identify a Joshua Hall previously sentenced to federal prison time for making threats against a U.S. congressman and engaging in online fundraising fraud by impersonating presidential family members.

Hall has a history of generating similar fictitious apologies directed at Trump, having previously pushed a false narrative claiming Fulton County, Georgia, officials owed the former president an apology over duplicate vote tallies.

Claims Lacked Factual Basis

Around the time the rumor began circulating, the FBI issued subpoenas for historical 2020 election documents as part of an ongoing review of past challenges. In response, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes reiterated that extensive reviews, audits, and bipartisan court challenges had already thoroughly vetted the election without uncovering evidence capable of changing the outcome.

“The 2020 General Election in Arizona has been exhaustively reviewed,” Mayes stated, noting that previous investigations by the attorney general’s office involved thousands of hours of inquiry into voting irregularities that ultimately proved entirely unsupported by facts.

Separate administrative hiccups—such as a vendor error in October 2026 that caused over 3,000 mail-in ballots to be dispatched a few days ahead of schedule—were promptly addressed by the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, which clarified that the mistake was purely logistical and involved no malicious intent or altered outcomes.

Sources