Trump's campaign shuts down 'voter fraud' hotline after it gets flooded with prank calls

Amid all the chaos in the US election, outgoing President Donald Trump’s campaign has shut down its “voter fraud” hotline after about a week in operation. According to NBC News, the Trump campaign confirmed the closure of the hotline it created in recent days to field allegations of voter fraud. However, the special number had become the subject of viral pranks and ridicule among critics. 

On November 13, it was reported that Trump campaign had shut down the hotline and is now encouraging Americans to send complaints of alleged voter fraud through a digital platform. Earlier, the president’s son Eric Trump had also claimed that the hotline phone numbers were being spammed by the Democratic Party. He had tweeted that the “DNC is spamming” the voter fraud hotline to bog down the thousands of complaints that the Trump campaign is receiving.

READ: Outgoing US President Trump Re-posts 2019 Diwali Photo; Other Leaders More Forthcoming

It was, however, later reported that several social media users, mostly “lefty teenagers,” were spamming Trump’s hotline number. Netizens had also posted videos of themselves calling the hotline with bogus claims. While sharing the clip of the prank call, one user wrote, "I'm don't want to tell anyone what to do, but if you felt like calling this number and, say, reporting the Hamburglar, I can confirm from personal experience that it would be very funny”. 

READ: Thousands Of Trump Supporters Rally In Washington Demanding 'four More Years' For Him

The news comes as multiple law firms representing the US President abruptly withdrew from several legal challenges that Trump has launched in critical battleground states. The Republican incumbent has yet to reveal any evidence of systemic voter fraud or election rigging. He is also showing reluctance in conceding. 

READ: Thousands Attend March In DC To Support Trump

Trump comes closest to conceding defeat to Biden 

On Friday, Trump came the closest to acknowledging he lost doing a COVID-19 briefing. While speaking at a press briefing, he said that his administration will not o into lockdown even with the increasing virus cases in the US, adding “lockdown costs lives and a lot of problems”. 

"Ideally, we won’t go to a lockdown.  I will not go — this administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully, the — the — whatever happens in the future — who knows which administration it will be?  I guess time will tell. But I can tell you, this administration will not go to a lockdown," Trump said. This was the first time since last Thursday that Trump spoke publicly. After Trump's address, several other speakers talked about the US' COVID-19 response, following which the president left without taking questions from the press.  

READ: Trump Supporters Defiant In Support Of President