Trump spreads election claims about China, noncitizens
US President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White Home in Washington, DC on July 16, 2026.
Saul Loeb | By way of Reuters
President Donald Trump in a nationwide handle Thursday evening sowed doubts concerning the safety of U.S. election programs and voter data, alleging widespread meddling by China within the 2020 cycle amongst quite a few different claims that had been rapidly challenged by truth checkers.
Trump, who has falsely claimed for years that his loss to former President Joe Biden within the 2020 race was “rigged” because of widespread fraud, claimed within the primetime speech that newly declassified intelligence reveals “stunning vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.”
The roughly 25-minute primetime speech got here because the president and his allies work to impose main modifications in U.S. elections forward of the November midterms through redistricting, including procedural steps for People to vote and casting doubt on the validity of the nation’s electoral programs. Polls present Democrats are favored to retake the U.S. Home amid Trump’s slumping reputation, and Trump has expressed issues about investigations he might face if Democrats management one or each chambers of Congress.
Trump alleged Thursday that the paperwork posted to the White Home web site present China carried out the “illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter recordsdata” beginning in 2020, when Trump was president.
Different recordsdata present the “deep state” labored to cover the “extent of China’s sinister election meddling,” Trump stated, whereas claiming China didn’t need him to win reelection in 2020.
However Trump, in early January of 2021, was proven labeled intelligence gathered on overseas threats to the 2020 election, in keeping with the declassified evaluation from the U.S. intelligence group.
“We assess that China didn’t deploy interference efforts and regarded however didn’t deploy affect efforts supposed to alter the result of the US Presidential election,” that report stated.
It later provides that intelligence officers assessed, “Beijing didn’t intervene with election infrastructure, together with vote tabulation or the transmission of election outcomes.”
That contradicts Trump’s declare in Thursday’s speech that Chinese language meddling actions “included an try to manufacture unlawful ballots” for Biden.
Trump additionally repeated his requires the Republican-led Congress to go the “SAVE America Act,” the controversial invoice that purports to crack down on noncitizens meddling in U.S. elections by requiring photograph identification to vote and proof of citizenship to register, amongst different provisions. Opponents say the measure would disenfranchise voters, notably those that are low-income or individuals of shade.
Trump additionally claimed {that a} evaluate by the Division of Homeland Safety discovered about 278,000 non-citizens “who’re registered to vote in federal elections.”
However Trump didn’t say how DHS carried out that evaluate. And he didn’t declare that these non-U.S. residents truly voted in U.S. elections. It’s already unlawful for them to take action, and documented situations of noncitizen voting are very uncommon.
Federal regulation already requires citizenship to vote in U.S. elections, and knowledge present very few situations through which ballots are forged by noncitizens.
However Trump has made the election invoice his prime precedence forward of the subsequent elections. He has even refused to signal different laws into regulation till the SAVE America Act reaches his desk. And his allies within the Home have stalled different measures from reaching the president as they press to go the election regulation, which does not have the votes to clear Congress.
Trump’s Republican Get together seeks to maintain its majorities within the Home and Senate previous the midterms, however it faces main challenges. The occasion holding the White Home traditionally underperforms in midterm elections, and Democrats goal to capitalize on what polls have proven are People’ unfavourable views on the financial system, the Iran warfare and Trump himself.
Trump’s election efforts
Individuals vote throughout major elections on the Brooklyn Museum in New York, U.S., June 23, 2026.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Trump has sought to problem election outcomes he opposes utilizing each lever at his disposal.
After his 2020 election loss, Trump and his allies filed dozens of lawsuits difficult states’ tallies, however not one of the outcomes had been overturned and no credible proof of election-flipping fraud was introduced.
The efforts to overturn the 2020 final result culminated within the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the middle of U.S. authorities and compelled lawmakers to quickly flee their chambers for security. Trump later pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly all defendants concerned within the riot.
In late January, an election workplace in Georgia — a prime goal of Trump’s makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 race — was raided by the FBI, which sought 2020 election-related data. Trump’s then-Director of Nationwide Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was noticed at that raid.
After Gabbard introduced her resignation in Might, Trump picked federal housing regulatory chief Invoice Pulte as her performing alternative.
Pulte, who has gained a repute as a loyal assault canine for Trump, is predicted to hitch the president for the speech, MS NOW beforehand reported.
The Division of Justice, in the meantime, has filed lawsuits in quite a few states in search of to acquire detailed voter registration knowledge. The DOJ has argued it wants the knowledge to make sure compliance with federal election legal guidelines. Greater than a dozen such circumstances have been dismissed by federal judges up to now.
