The story, as reported in the New York Times, is bizarre. According to multiple sources, at a reception for House and Senate leaders Trump relayed a story meant to back his wild claims of fraud. That story involved German golfer Bernhard Langer. Three sources claim that Langer—a German citizen ineligible to vote in the United States—saw voter fraud by people he presumably believed to be undocumented immigrants, while trying to vote unsuccessfully himself. Another source contradicts this account, saying the story was relayed to Langer by a friend who was eligible to vote. But both accounts agree that Trump’s take from Langer was that a group of voters presumably of Latin American origin “did not look as if they should be allowed to vote,” as paraphrased by the newspaper. This was a bullhorn where we’d usually expect a more savvy dog-whistle.

As recently as the latest election cycle, the dog whistle was king. Republicans sounded the alarm early and often about reports of mass in-person voter fraud, despite no evidence that it exists. Republicans also rallied around the suspicion of undocumented immigrants registering to vote—again, a claim that remains unsubstantiated. Both of these claims that themselves invoke a certain threat of people of color and immigrants voting were used to justify voter suppression. Although the courts struck down some of the most egregious voting laws like North Carolina’s with its racial “surgical precision,” on the whole there were more voting restrictions in place in 2016 than in previous elections. Further, those laws were likely just a prelude to a slow dance of legal challenges that could seriously weaken the Voting Rights Act under a Trump administration.

Trump himself played along with the voter-fraud game on the campaign trail. Without evidence, he repeatedly claimed that there were millions of cases of voter fraud in favor of Democrats. He also implied that he might not accept the results of the election as legitimate based on that falsehood, though he later reversed that position after he won the election. But Trump did play by the rules of the dog-whistle game in using the cover of voter fraud to advocate for policies with histories and implications steeped in racism, such as poll-watching and intimidation in Democratic strongholds in neighborhoods of color.

Despite the apparent contradiction of claiming a legitimate victory and also maintaining a claim that millions of people cast votes illegally, Trump carried these claims into office, becoming the first president to demand an investigation into an election he won.

The genesis of these claims seems largely rooted in ego and perhaps a touch of distraction—Trump has been clearly rankled by losing the popular vote, and a focus on vilifying an out-group of minorities for tainting an election could serve as a badly-needed pressure valve amid swirling allegations of Russian interference on his behalf. But Trump has also tied these claims of voter fraud to the larger Republican aim of “strengthen[ing] up voting procedures.” In clarifying statements, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer outlined that the investigation would focus on states and places that did not vote for Trump. How much distance is there between such an investigation and an imposition of draconian voter rules on communities of color? Historically, not much.