At a rally in Pennsylvania on June 23, 2026, President Trump claimed that he had personally directed a federal prosecutor to scrutinize California's primary election and that his call changed the result. Trump said he called Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney for central California, because he feared his endorsed candidate, Republican Steve Hilton, would not advance in the June 2 gubernatorial primary.
“I called up the very powerful, very good U.S. attorney in California. I said, 'Do me a favor. Take a look,'” Trump said. “About an hour after the call, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Hilton has won... Had I not made that call, Steve Hilton would right now be watching the election from home.”
The claim is false on its mechanics. California uses a top-two “jungle” primary, and Hilton advanced to the November runoff against Democrat Xavier Becerra simply because more ballots were counted in the days after election night, as routinely happens in the state's slow count. There is no evidence a prosecutor altered any tally. What Trump described, a president phoning a federal prosecutor to intervene in a state election he feared losing, is either an admission of attempted election interference or a fabricated boast, and he made it openly at a rally.