'I've Had Enough': Trump Storms Off After Reporter Presses Him On CA Election Fraud Allegations

SACRAMENTO, CA — California's historic primary elections continued to make waves after President Donald Trump stormed out of an interview with NBC's "Meet The Press" when he was questioned over his accusations of election fraud in the Golden State.

On Friday, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said it had opened “multiple election fraud investigations” related to California's elections and sent a prosecutor to the county's vote-counting center.

The developments came a day after President Donald Trump made baseless claims of mass fraud in California's drawn-out vote count from Tuesday's primary. Late-tallied Democratic-leaning mail ballots were continuing to eat into the vote totals for the president's preferred candidates for governor and Los Angeles mayor.

The announcement by U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Trump's appointee as the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and the visit to Los Angeles County's ballot tabulation center marked an escalation in the president's campaign against the Democratic-dominated state, whose notoriously prolonged vote count has been a magnet for election conspiracy theories. Trump weighed in again Friday while participating in a roundtable discussion in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, claiming without evidence that Democrats were rigging the election.

RELATED: Feds Open Investigations Into CA Elections, Sends Prosecutor To LA Vote Center

In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, President Trump discussed the war with Iran, dismissing the idea that launching the war with Iran this year betrayed his refrain of “No new wars” that he made repeatedly as he campaigned again for the White House.

Trump said he “didn’t guarantee” there would be no wars if he were back in office.

“First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” Trump said.

Trump also defended plans for a now-scrapped $1.8 billion fund that would have compensated allies of the Republican president and he repeated his baseless claims of mass fraud in California’s drawn-out vote count from Tuesday’s primary. He ended the interview abruptly when he became frustrated with pushback from NBC’s Kristen Welker.

Trump left the interview after Welker insisted that the president had not shown any proof to validate his claims of irregularities in California's primary election votes.

"You're a one-sided crooked network,” Trump said. "Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time."

“I sat in the rain with you for an hour," he continued.

"On and off in the rain, and I’ve given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press. A country can never be great with a dishonest press," he said before walking away.

RELATED: Democrat Xavier Becerra Advances To General Election In Race For CA Governor

Following Trump's allegations of election fraud in California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber said that while Election Day has passed, California law allows county elections officials up to 30 days to complete the official canvass and process eligible ballots that remain outstanding.

"Accuracy comes before speed," Weber said in a statement. "California is the nation's largest voting state, with millions of ballots to process and count. Taking the time to do this work correctly protects voters' rights and ensures the integrity of our elections."

Under Assembly Bill 5, which took effect this year, counties are required to count and report most ballots by June 15. Certain ballot types are exempt from that deadline, including provisional ballots, conditional voter registration ballots, signature cure ballots, ballots requiring duplication, ballots forwarded from other counties and some late-arriving vote-by-mail ballots, according to Weber.

Election officials said results are expected to change throughout the canvass period as additional vote-by-mail, provisional and other ballots are processed and added to the totals.

RELATED: Real-Time Results: LA Mayoral Election 2026

The frequency of updated election results will vary by county depending on the number of ballots remaining and the procedures used by local elections offices to tally and report votes, officials said.

Weber's reminder came after Trump alleged on social media that Democrats were attempting to influence the outcome of California primary races through the counting of vote-by-mail ballots. Trump claimed without providing evidence that there was "BIG cheating" in California and suggested the matter was under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: "The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS."

The U.S. Attorney's Office did not publicly confirm any such investigation.

Gov. Gavin Newsom responded on X, writing, "Trump is lying about California again — time to take the phone away from grandpa and put him to sleep."

State election officials have repeatedly noted that California law allows vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive within the prescribed deadline and that election results routinely change during the canvass period as ballots are processed.

County elections officials must submit their final results to the Secretary of State by July 3. The Secretary of State is scheduled to certify the election results by July 10.

State officials encouraged voters seeking additional information about the vote-counting process to visit the Secretary of State's website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.