President Donald Trump used his free time Wednesday to attack Colorado officials who refuse to honor his purported pardon of Tina Peters, going so far as to call Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) “trash” and calling for him and a Republican district attorney to “rot in hell.”

Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, was convicted of state crimes in 2024 for orchestrating a criminal scheme with election deniers to breach voting machine data, fueled by baseless conspiracies of fraud in the 2020 election that, in turn, were planted by Trump.

“God bless Tina Peters, who now, for two out of every nine years, is in a Colorado maximum security prison, at the age of 73, and sick, for the ‘crime’ of trying to stop the massive voter fraud occurring in her state,” Trump wrote on social media.

“It’s hard to wish a Happy New Year, but to the bastard governor and the disgusting ‘Republican’ prosecutor (RINO!) who did this to him (nothing wrong with the Democrats and their bogus mail-in voting system that makes it impossible for a Republican to win in an otherwise very winnable state!), I wish them the worst. Let them rot in hell. FREE TINA PETERS!”

Like many of Trump’s statements, his Wednesday rant was riddled with errors: Peters is 70, not 73; Peters is in a medium-security facility, not a maximum-security prison; she is not “sick”; Polis told 9News this month that “she is perfectly healthy and doing well”; and voting by mail is extremely secure.

President Donald Trump (R) doesn't seem happy with Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (L) right now.
President Donald Trump (R) doesn’t seem happy with Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (L) right now.

Hyoung Chang/Getty Images; JIM WATSON/Getty Images

In November, the Colorado Department of Corrections denied a federal request to transfer her from state prison to federal custody. Trump’s “pardon” earlier this month came days after a federal judge denied Peters’ request to be released from prison while she appeals her case.

A president can only pardon someone convicted of federal crimes.

After the series of failures, Trump kept his promise to retaliate against the State if Polis did not pardon and release Peters.

Earlier this month, Trump pledged to dismantle a world-class weather and climate research institution in Boulder, Colorado, that conducts research to bolster the United States’ ability to predict and respond to severe weather and natural disasters.

The Trump administration also canceled $109 million in federal transportation grants to Colorado, including a $66 million grant intended to pay for a critical rail safety mechanism in the northern part of the state.

And on Tuesday, Trump used his veto power for the first time to reject a bipartisan bill that would fund a project to deliver drinking water to 39 communities in the southeastern part of the state.