US President Donald Trump gave an unusual prime-time speech in which he claimed the government’s “cover-up” and “weakness” of the country’s election system.
But experts were quick to point out that Trump had failed to provide any conclusive evidence that past presidential elections were influenced by fraud.
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In many ways, President Trump’s speech Thursday revisited themes familiar to Republican leaders.
He made broad accusations of a “deep state” conspiracy involving his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and lashed out at news organizations and close enemies such as China.
For years, Trump has promoted baseless claims that his loss in the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen.”
Trump stopped short of repeating his false claim that he had actually won the race. However, in his remarks, he pointed to declassified government documents and attempted to raise doubts about the election results.
But the files painted a more nuanced picture than the one Trump painted and failed to substantiate Trump’s claims of a conspiracy.
After the speech, Democrats accused Trump of trying to mislead the public and undermine confidence in the U.S. election system with just months left until November’s midterm elections.
Here are the key takeaways from his speech:
President Trump claims China compromised election data
One of the night’s biggest accusations was made against America’s geopolitical rival, China.
“Starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China committed what we believe to be the largest breach of election data in history,” President Trump said near the beginning of his speech.
He claimed that the Chinese government obtained 220 million U.S. voter files, including names, addresses and party preferences, through “illegal” means.
“Think about it: The data of tens of millions of voters in 18 states has been bought, stolen and hacked by China,” Trump said.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy denied such claims, saying that China “has never interfered in US presidential elections and will never do so in the future.”
But President Trump denied that the information was used to influence the election.
But critics pointed out that such voter information is already publicly available. As the U.S. Election Assistance Commission explained in a 2020 report, some states can sell that public data for prices ranging from $0 to $37,000.
Documents declassified by the White House also appear to show that the Chinese government is at least partially using public data. However, he expressed curiosity about China’s growing interest in such information.
“While the Chinese government has historically shown an interest in U.S. elections, this is a newly identified interest for this individual actor,” the heavily redacted assessment said.
“U.S. voter registration information is publicly available for download, and 2021 voter registration information is available in some states.”
President Trump alleges ‘deep state’ cover-up, vows retribution
In Thursday’s speech, Trump returned to the conspiracy theory that defined his first run for public office in 2016, that so-called “deep state” actors sought to undermine his presidency.
He claimed there was a “shadow government” of “rogue bureaucrats” who tried to cover up China’s efforts to influence the 2020 vote.
They even tried to hide information from the daily presidential brief, Trump claimed.
“These were the briefings I received almost every day. Everything important was hidden,” he said.
But experts note that presidential briefings are typically carefully curated to include information deemed important.
An intelligence report compiled in January 2021 assessed with “high confidence” that China considered launching an influence campaign in 2020 but ultimately decided against it.
This report was declassified in March 2021. The report included a minority opinion indicating that China had “taken at least some steps” to undermine President Trump’s reelection chances “primarily through social media, official public statements, and the media.”
The release of this report would appear to contradict President Trump’s “cover-up” claims.
Still, President Trump said in his speech that he had directed law enforcement leaders to “fire those involved in the cover-up and, if appropriate, bring criminal charges against these individuals.”
President Trump says people were ‘blatantly lied to’ about election security
Critics had warned that President Trump could use Thursday’s speech to spread falsehoods and undermine confidence in the U.S. election.
Some television news organizations, including ABC, NBC, and CNN, even chose not to broadcast the speech in its entirety on their major broadcast channels.
The timing of this speech is important, as there are less than four months left until the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
In fact, Trump spent part of his speech making the case that American voters were being duped by the same “deep state” actors he accused of targeting him.
“For years, Americans have been lied to blatantly about the security of our election infrastructure, including our voting machines and vote-counting systems,” Trump said.
“They were vulnerable and easily compromised, and people in government knew that.”
However, the declassified documents released by the White House did not appear to contain any major revelations about such claims. The potential vulnerabilities have been known for some time, and local and federal authorities have sought to address them.
The fact that elections are administered at the state and local level has also been cited as a barrier to widespread tampering.
Given the decentralized nature of U.S. election administration, U.S. intelligence agencies have long assessed large-scale vote manipulation as nearly impossible.
After President Trump’s speech, Democrats dismissed his remarks as distortions aimed at discouraging voters from participating in the election.
“President Donald Trump continues to lie and distort the truth in an effort to sow doubt and suppress the 2026 election,” U.S. Representative Jason Crow said in a video statement. “He doesn’t want Americans to vote. He doesn’t want their voices to be heard.”
Trump reopens Michigan investigation
President Trump offered a gesture of unity in his speech Thursday, arguing that election security should not be a “partisan issue.”
“It should be something that unites us, not divides us,” he said at one point.
But Republican leaders made questionable claims against targets large and small.
He called for broadcasting stations that did not broadcast his speech to have their broadcasting licenses revoked. He accused California of being “worse than any country in the Third World.” And he rehashed an incident that occurred in the battleground state of Michigan well before the 2020 election.
The case involved allegations of voter registration forms containing false information. However, the documents were not processed and had no bearing on that year’s elections. They were flagged months before the vote was taken.
The state attorney general’s office investigated the case, as did the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Neither found any evidence that the fraud had been successfully carried out. The documents are believed to have been used to meet workplace quotas, rather than as part of any election fraud.
Still, President Trump described the incident as a serious violation in his speech.
“This was a payoff, a game and a deception,” he said, going on to criticize former President Biden for failing to pursue the case. “The Biden Justice Department delayed the investigation and killed the investigation.”
He added that declassified documents released by the White House appear to contain no new evidence in the case, but that he has directed the FBI to reopen the investigation.
The speech attempted to raise questions but contained few revelations.
President Trump’s speech was touted as a key moment in his second term as president.
When his prime-time address was first announced on Tuesday, President Trump said it would include “really big news.” Spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt warned reporters earlier in the day that the speech would be “shocking.”
But Democrats and election experts say the speech will be overwhelming and will primarily galvanize Trump’s Republican base.
In fact, President Trump began his speech Thursday by reflecting on his accomplishments during his second term, from border security to fighting crime.
He concluded his speech by calling for passage of the SAVE America Act, a bill he has repeatedly championed to raise voter demand.
The bill would tighten identification standards for voters and require proof of citizenship in the form of documents such as birth certificates and passports, which some Americans do not have.
Rights groups say the requirement could disenfranchise some citizens.
Political analyst Eric Hamm said in an interview with Al Jazeera that the speech furthers Trump’s efforts to bring elections under federal control.
“This is an ambition that the president has been trying to do for a long time, and I think what we saw tonight was another shot at fundamentally changing elections,” Hamm said.
The top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, also criticized the speech as a distraction from Trump’s political woes ahead of the midterm elections.
“Donald Trump is a weak, conspiracy-spreading, 80-year-old failed president,” Jeffries wrote on social media. “The economy is a disaster under this man, and the American people know it.”
