Trump Stokes Doubts on US Election Security in Combative Speech

President Donald Trump devoted a prime-time address to reviving unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen and stoking doubts about the security of the upcoming midterms, turning his attention to a years-long grievance at a perilous moment for his presidency.

Speaking Thursday from the East Room of the White House, Trump said he was detailing findings from newly released declassified intelligence reports with claims about vulnerabilities to voting systems, China’s efforts to acquire US voter data, Michigan voter registration fraud and what he said were more than 200,000 noncitizens on state voter rolls.

“Our purpose in disclosing this information is not to weaken confidence in elections, but to earn that confidence by confronting vulnerabilities and correcting them very, very quickly,” he said.

Trump’s roughly 25-minute speech included allegations about efforts by US government officials to cover up Chinese interference in elections and cyberhacking in Venezuela. Much of the data released on the White House’s website in conjunction with the speech appeared incomplete or included information that was already known.

In several cases, the documents were years old, with some of the heavily redacted files dating back to 2016.

The claims about noncitizens on voter rolls were in a one-page press release with no underlying evidence. Instances of noncitizens voting are extremely rare, regardless of the registration data, studies of past elections have shown.

Trump’s speech was a remarkable moment, even for a president who has spent around six years in the nation’s highest office shattering previously held traditions and making outlandish claims.

Televised, prime-time presidential addresses are typically reserved for major national events or somber moments. Yet Trump delivered his speech on his longtime voting complaints at a time when Americans are questioning his decision to continue to prosecute an unpopular war against Iran, as well as his stewardship of the economy, as inflation remains elevated. The nation is also grappling with the outbreak of foodborne illness, extreme heat and deadly flooding in Texas.

As the president spoke, US Central Command announced it had completed its latest round of major strikes against Iran for the sixth consecutive day.

Trump used his speech to justify his pressure campaign on Congress to pass a strict voter identification bill. There’s no sign yet that the speech changed some Republican senators’ deep-seated opposition to bypassing the chamber’s 60-vote rule to approve it.

The president said it’s imperative that Americans feel that elections are free of misconduct and interference.

“Great damage has been done to our country. Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost,” Trump said during his remarks.

At the center of Trump’s speech were the intelligence reports. The move is his latest effort in a long-running crusade to demonstrate the 2020 election was stolen. Numerous recounts, lawsuits and investigations have affirmed Joe Biden’s victory in that year’s presidential contest.

Trump and his allies have failed to demonstrate that votes were tampered with in the 2020 election, as the president claims. A report by the National Intelligence Council declassified in 2021 also found no indications that any foreign actor “attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process.”