US President Donald Trump promised “really big news” in an unusual prime-time address Thursday night, but did not specify what that would be.
The surprise speech was announced on Tuesday. But when asked by reporters what he planned to say, Trump said only that his speech would be about the election and “a few other things.”
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“It can’t get any bigger because without free and fair elections we don’t have a country,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Asked for details, Trump said he would “save it” for his speech.
“We’ll talk about other things as well,” he added. “This is a very important announcement.”
The White House later confirmed that the speech focused on the election, including information related to the 2020 presidential election that Trump falsely claimed won.
The speech will also discuss what the White House describes as vulnerabilities in America’s voting machines.
Here’s what we know about the next prime-time presidential address.
When will President Trump speak?
President Trump is scheduled to speak from the White House on Thursday at 9pm ET (1am Friday Japan time).
How can I watch it?
Major US television networks are expected to broadcast the speech live. The Trump administration requested airtime from major broadcast stations.
It will also be livestreamed on WhiteHouse.gov and the White House YouTube page.
Why is timing important?
President Trump’s speech comes three and a half months before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
At stake is control of the U.S. Congress. President Trump’s Republican Party currently holds slim majorities in both houses of Congress.
But Democrats are trying to use the backlash against President Trump’s second term to tilt the situation in their favor.
Critics worry that Trump will use his prime-time speech to undermine voter confidence in the upcoming election or assert federal influence over election administration run at the state and local level.
There is also speculation that President Trump is trying to shore up his support base amid declining poll numbers. Research firm YouGov suggested this month that more than 57% of U.S. voters disapprove of the president’s performance so far in his second term.
What is Mr. Trump expected to say?
For now, there are many unknowns about Thursday’s speech.
Trump will discuss newly declassified information related to the investigation into the 2020 presidential election, administration officials said.
Trump also indicated that he would discuss alleged vulnerabilities in voting machines that could allow cyber intrusions from foreign countries.
Trump has revealed little else. Asked this week if his speech would focus on the integrity of voting machines, he simply replied, “It will be about that topic.”
What happened in the 2020 election?
Trump was a first-term incumbent when he ran for a second term in the 2020 presidential election.
He ran against Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who served as vice president under President Barack Obama.
Mr. Biden defeated Mr. Trump, winning both the electoral votes that decide the presidency and the popular vote, an important symbolic metric.
Democrats won 306 electoral college votes and more than 81 million individual votes, compared to Trump’s 232 electoral college votes and more than 74 million individual votes.
Importantly, battleground states such as Georgia, Michigan and Arizona voted in Biden’s favor.
After the election, Trump repeatedly rejected the results, and on January 6, 2021, his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol during the certification of electors.
What is the history of Trump’s doubts about US elections?
President Trump has been questioning the integrity of U.S. elections for years, even before 2020.
Before the 2016 election, he refused to say whether he would accept defeat to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
After his first inauguration, he established a presidential commission to investigate his claims that he had lost the popular vote due to widespread fraud. Because no evidence was found to support these claims, the committee was disbanded.
After losing the 2020 election, Trump repeatedly claimed that votes were stolen, even though numerous investigations found no evidence to support those claims.
In Georgia, he asked the state’s secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes,” the number needed to overturn Biden’s victory.
Mr. Trump and his allies later faced two charges, one at the state level and one at the federal level, for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election results.
The federal case was dropped when Trump was reelected in 2024, in line with the Justice Department’s policy not to prosecute sitting presidents.
Meanwhile, the state-level case collapsed after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from prosecuting the case.
However, President Trump continued to claim that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election despite a lack of evidence to support that claim.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the federal government’s cybersecurity watchdog, called the 2020 election “the most secure election in U.S. history.”
Investigations, including some by President Trump’s allies, have found no evidence that rigged voting machines or foreign cyber intrusions changed the outcome.
What has the administration done recently to advance President Trump’s 2020 case?
In January, FBI agents traveled to Fulton County, Georgia, to execute a search warrant to collect election materials related to the 2020 election.
Officials in Fulton County, which includes the state capital Atlanta, protested the raid and demanded the return of sensitive election materials.
They also claimed they were not given an inventory of what was taken.
An FBI memo obtained by U.S. media this month said authorities had sent hundreds of agents to the case regarding “fraud that occurred during the 2020 presidential election.”
President Trump asked Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to declassify documents related to the 2020 vote.
What do President Trump’s claims have to do with the midterm elections?
As the November midterm elections approach, President Trump appears to be increasing his claims of election fraud.
According to a May commentary published by Reuters, President Trump claimed that 2020 votes were stolen more than 107 times in the past six months.
President Trump has already suggested that California’s June primary vote was “rigged.”
Just last week, he blamed Pratt’s loss on voter fraud and invited defeated Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt to the White House. “What they did to that man was unbelievable,” President Trump told Fox News on Sunday.
President Trump has expressed concern that he could be impeached if his party fails to maintain control of Congress in the midterm elections. A landslide victory for the Democratic Party in the midterm elections could hamper the president’s legislative agenda during the final two years of his term.
What has Trump done to advance his election reform agenda?
Since returning to office in 2025, Trump has pushed to overhaul voting procedures.
Under the U.S. Constitution, election administration belongs to the states. It is not under the control of the federal government.
But critics say Trump is trying to nationalize elections and tighten access to voters.
President Trump has supported voting restrictions such as the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport.
Noncitizens are already prohibited from voting. But opponents say the SAVE America Act creates hurdles for legal voters who cannot access such documents. Many states allow voting with other forms of identification, such as a state driver’s license or Social Security number.
President Trump has also sought to limit the use of mail-in voting through legislation such as the SAVE America Act and executive orders. But federal courts have repeatedly blocked his efforts.
For example, the Supreme Court ruled in June that states can continue counting mail-in ballots after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by that day.
President Trump also faces legal challenges to his efforts to force states to submit voter rolls and create a national voter file. He threatened to withhold funding, including from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), if states did not comply with his demands.
Earlier this month, the administration sent a letter to election officials across the country warning that instances of non-referendum voting “may result in criminal prosecution.”
But like voter fraud overall, non-citizen votes are extremely rare.
How did Democrats react to Thursday’s upcoming speech?
Democrats have warned against giving airtime to Trump’s baseless claims.
“Mr. Trump intends to use his prime-time speech to fuel misleading claims about the election in order to justify interference in the midterm elections,” Sen. Mark Warner said on social media Wednesday.
“It is up to all of us to follow the facts and not accept his constant misdirection and lies.”
Another senator, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, pointed to President Trump’s second impeachment as evidence of a desire to overturn the election.
“This is the same person who was impeached for inciting an insurrection to overturn the election,” Lujan said, calling President Trump “corrupt.”
