President Donald Trump, in a primetime address on Thursday, introduced he has declassified a slew of paperwork he claims reveal vulnerabilities in America’s elections methods, election fraud, and interference by China, and ordered the Division of Justice to prosecute these believed to be concerned.
“America is again and doing very well, however we nonetheless have a significant problem that have to be urgently addressed as a result of no nation may be nice with out honest and trustworthy elections, it’s a must to belief your nation,” Trump mentioned. “As a result of if there may be no belief, there may be no greatness, and that is quite simple: no belief, no greatness.”
However all through the 22-minute speech, the president didn’t present particular proof that the election end result — or any votes — had been altered within the 2020 election, regardless of his repeated claims that the election was “stolen” or “rigged.”
President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White Home in Washington, July 16, 2026.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Photos
US elections
Within the remarks, the president mentioned that he would instantly declassify the discharge of “crucial intelligence, revealing stunning vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.”
“This proof exhibits that the election system we now have dangerously exposes, and actually exposes like ranges by no means thought potential, to hacking, exploitation, and international interference. Simply as disturbingly, this important data has, for a few years, been coated up and hidden from you, the American individuals,” Trump mentioned.
Based on the president, the paperwork concentrate on what he mentioned had been numerous areas of concern, together with claims that China “compromised” election information in the course of the 2020 election, and makes an attempt to downplay the extent of China’s efforts.
Chinese language exploitation of voter information claims
Trump argued that the intelligence group suppressed details about China allegedly accessing 220 million voter information and attempting to show American opinion in opposition to him within the run-up to the 2020 election.
“First, they present that over a interval of years, beginning in the course of the 2020 election cycle, the Folks’s Republic of China carried out what’s believed to be the most important compromise of election information in historical past, leading to China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter information. That data contains names, addresses, cellphone numbers, political social gathering preferences, and different delicate information that will be wanted to register to vote and have interaction in different nefarious actions,” Trump mentioned.
The president accused the so-called “deep state” of preserving details about election meddling from him.
“The second set of paperwork we’re releasing reveals that members of the deep state, very, very well-known group of individuals, in lots of instances, in our intelligence company, work to actively suppress and downplay details about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling,” the president mentioned.
Trump claimed that U.S. intelligence companies discovered that tens of hundreds of thousands of voters’ information in 18 states had been “purchased, stolen, or hacked” by China, and that the intelligence group intentionally stored this data from him whereas he was president.
“These chargeable for sounding the alarm as a substitute stored the knowledge secret and hidden. They didn’t open up to me as president or to anybody else, and to the most effective of our information, they didn’t inform Congress,” Trump claimed.
The president insisted that the Chinese language authorities wished him to lose the 2020 election, satisfied that he can be more durable on them than his opponent Joe Biden can be.
Regardless of the alleged efforts by the Chinese language authorities taking place throughout Trump’s first time period, he claimed that the details about Chinese language tried election interference was stored out of his day by day intelligence briefing.
Trump additionally referred to as for investigations into those that he accuses of withholding data on alleged Chinese language interference into the 2020 election.
Officers from each the Biden and Trump administrations mentioned there was no intelligence indicating that voting machines or vote totals had been modified. In March 2021, two months into the Biden administration, a declassified Intelligence Neighborhood Evaluation (ICA) publicly acknowledged the idea amongst some intelligence officers that “China took a minimum of some steps to undermine former President Trump’s reelection probabilities.” However the ICA mentioned any such actions had been “primarily by social media and official public statements and media,” not by interference with “election processes.”
President Donald Trump gestures after addressing the nation from the East Room of the White Home, July 16, 2026 in Washington.
Saul Loeb/Pool by way of Getty Photos
Additional, the ICA mentioned that whereas China was “most likely” attempting “to collect data on US voters and public opinion; political events, candidates and their staffs; and senior authorities officers,” the extra dependable intelligence indicated that such efforts weren’t really supposed to undermine Trump however as a substitute to “predict electoral outcomes and to tell its efforts to affect US coverage towards China below both election end result.”
Chinese language International Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian responded Friday to the claims of Chinese language election interference.
“The related allegations from the U.S. facet are fully fabricated out of skinny air, and this malicious smearing has lengthy been confirmed to be utter nonsense,” Jian mentioned. “China has all the time adhered to the precept of non-interference in inner affairs; we now have no real interest in and have by no means interfered within the U.S. presidential election. Quite the opposite, who’s it that routinely interferes within the inner affairs of different nations? Who has engaged in long-term, indiscriminate surveillance of governments, enterprises, and bizarre residents worldwide, and has stolen the info of different nations’ residents on an enormous scale? The worldwide group sees this with absolute readability.”
“We urge the U.S. facet to have interaction in self-reflection, cease its groundless smearing of China, chorus from utilizing China as a problem within the election, and do extra of what really advantages China-U.S. relations,” Jian continued.
Voting machine and vote-counting methods
Trump additionally claimed that People have been “blatantly lied to” about how safe U.S. voting infrastructure is, specializing in digital voting machines and poll counting methods.
“This can be a cyberthreat aimed on the very coronary heart of our democracy,” he mentioned.
Among the many paperwork, Trump claimed, was CIA data on a selected plot by the Maduro regime in Venezuela “conspiring to digitally rig their very own nation’s elections in 2020.”
Trump instructed the identical alleged techniques may very well be used within the U.S. But it surely’s unclear the place that data got here from or how credible the CIA decided it was, or whether or not the alleged plot was efficiently executed inside Venezuela.
Michigan 2020 voter registration investigation
In his speech, Trump alleged that former Justice Division officers slow-walked an investigation in Michigan that allegedly concerned the submission of voter registration purposes that apparently had cast signatures and different indications of fraudulent purposes.
“Among the many disclosures tonight are FBI information detailing proof of alleged fraud by a large-scale voter registration operation in Michigan,” he mentioned. “In 2020, Michigan State Police raided a Democrat get-out-the-vote group, corrupt group, in Muskegon, and we’re so involved by what they discovered. They had been simply so involved they could not imagine it, really, that they contacted the FBI in Detroit.”
“The paperwork state that some canvassers admitted to FBI brokers that they signed voter registration types in different individuals’s names, submitted fraudulent registration for individuals who didn’t exist, and obtained present playing cards tied to their variety of purposes that they produced,” the president added. “In different phrases, it was pay, play and cheat.”
Trump mentioned he would ask FBI Director Kash Patel “to make sure that the matter is totally investigated and to work with the Division of Justice to prosecute these chargeable for any crimes.”
Native media on the time mentioned {that a} state-level investigation was halted so the FBI may proceed with a associated investigation. It is unclear why no federal prices had been ever introduced, or if federal prices had been even warranted. To this point no concrete proof has surfaced indicating malfeasance throughout the Justice Division in not submitting prices.
On the time, state officers mentioned that the truth that the fraudulent purposes had been detected exhibits that the system labored. “An intensive investigation was performed by a number of companies throughout the state and no profitable fraud was perpetrated upon the state’s election course of or certified voter file,” one state official mentioned on the time.
President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White Home in Washington, July 16, 2026.
Saul Loeb/Pool by way of AP
Non-citizens on voter rolls
The president additionally mentioned the paperwork launched Thursday embody a Division of Homeland Safety report he referred to as “beautiful,” alleging that “state voter rolls and public information … recognized roughly 278,000 non-citizens who’re registered to vote in federal elections.”
“Our elections had been left weak to being rigged and stolen, and the belief of the American individuals was misplaced. This can’t be allowed to proceed,” he later added.
A fast overview of the paperwork launched by the White Home Thursday night time pertaining to non-citizens on voter rolls seems to exhibits they could have lumped numerous deceased voters into this class, showing to drastically inflate the quantity.
The president didn’t allege any of those individuals on the record voted within the federal elections.
The Middle for Election Innovation and Analysis revealed a report this month saying that “sweeping allegations about potential noncitizen registration or voting seem to come up from misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about advanced voter information.” In truth, the report says, “situations of registration or voting by potential noncitizens are extraordinarily uncommon.”
And findings from the conservative Heritage Basis have discovered solely round 100 verified situations of non-citizen voting going again 20 years.
Moreover, the Division of Homeland Safety says the declare of greater than 250,000 noncitizen voters got here from a overview of “public voter information” that seem to have come from 4 states: California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. DHS doesn’t present any methodology about the way it reached that quantity, nor does it specify what “public voter information” it reviewed. DHS acknowledged it didn’t have entry to these states’ voter rolls, and alleges that within the 10 states that supplied the federal authorities entry to their rolls, the company discovered 28,000 noncitizen voters.
A pitch for the SAVE America Act
The president’s speech led to his predominant argument: he needs Congress to move the SAVE America Act, his sweeping elections reform invoice that Senate Majority Chief John Thune has repeatedly mentioned doesn’t have sufficient Republican votes to move.
“However, most significantly, addressing this disaster of election safety calls for that Congress should move the SAVE America Act,” Trump mentioned, elevating his voice. “How simple is that to do until you need to cheat? The one cause you would not do it’s you need to cheat as a result of your insurance policies are so dangerous and your candidates are so pathetic that you may’t get away or cannot get elected another means.”
“These reforms are urgently wanted to cease the vulnerabilities that I’ve talked about,” Trump went on to say. “To all People, I ask you to select up your cellphone tomorrow, name your representatives within the Home and Senate, and demand that they move the SAVE America Act at once. Collectively, we are going to restore religion and confidence in our nation, and we might be larger, higher, and stronger than ever earlier than.”
The SAVE America Act would mandate states get hold of proof of citizenship earlier than registering an individual to vote in a federal election or else face penalties, strengthen voter identification necessities for individuals voting, and require states to share voter rolls, amongst different necessities. The Brennan Middle for Justice says the invoice would disenfranchise American voters, significantly youthful voters, voters of shade, and girls who’ve new married names, and estimates 21 million People lack prepared entry to paperwork like a passport or start certificates to show American citizenship.
ABC News’ Devin Garbitt and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
