U.S. President Donald Trump used a nationally televised address on Thursday evening to revive his longstanding claims that the 2020 presidential election was compromised, announcing the declassification of intelligence documents that he said exposed vulnerabilities in the country’s electoral system and accusing China of attempting to influence the outcome of the election he lost to Joe Biden.
According to reporting by El País, the nearly 30-minute speech focused largely on the election held six years ago rather than current domestic or international challenges. Speaking from the White House in a format traditionally reserved for major national events, Trump argued that confidence in elections was essential to the country’s future and announced the immediate release of intelligence material gathered by the administration’s Election Fraud Task Force.
Trump claimed that the People’s Republic of China had carried out what he described as the largest theft of U.S. voter data in history, alleging that Chinese authorities had illegally obtained information on 220 million American voters, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, political affiliations, and other personal data. He also accused Beijing of paying journalists critical of his presidency to publish unfavorable coverage because, he said, Chinese officials preferred that he lose the 2020 election.
The president called on his administration to investigate why the intelligence had allegedly been withheld, dismiss those responsible for any cover-up, and pursue criminal charges where appropriate. He further claimed that classified documents showed the Central Intelligence Agency had received reports of a plot to manipulate election results in Venezuela in favor of President Nicolás Maduro, arguing that such intelligence demonstrated the need to better protect the U.S. electoral system.
However, as reported by El País, many of the released documents had already been publicly known, although heavily redacted. While they describe Chinese efforts to influence U.S. politics and reflect skepticism within the Chinese government toward Trump, they do not establish that those activities altered the outcome of the 2020 election or played a decisive role in Biden’s victory.
Trump opened his address by highlighting what he described as the achievements of his administration and commenting on developments involving Venezuela and Iran before turning his attention to election security. Earlier in the week, he had previewed the speech by promising what he called a major announcement concerning the country’s elections.
Several major U.S. television networks, including NBC and ABC, chose not to broadcast the address live. According to El País, the decision reflected concerns that the speech would repeat false claims regarding the 2020 election. Similar editorial decisions were made by some broadcasters in 2022 when then-President Joe Biden delivered a speech that networks considered overly political.
The address followed reports that Trump had recently been briefed at the White House on the findings of a renewed FBI review of historical election records. After receiving the briefing, he announced the national address through his social media platform, Truth.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in 2021 that although Iran, Russia, and China attempted to influence the 2020 election, there was no evidence of significant foreign interference affecting the result or manipulation of vote-counting machines. Those conclusions have also been upheld in repeated court rulings rejecting claims that the election outcome was fraudulent.
According to El País, Trump’s renewed focus on the 2020 election comes as the United States approaches congressional midterm elections, where opinion polls project gains for Democrats. Since returning to office, Trump has continued to pursue investigations into election procedures in several jurisdictions and has promoted measures intended to tighten voting requirements, including support for the proposed SAVE America Act. Many of those initiatives have faced legal challenges, while some Republican lawmakers have reportedly expressed concern that revisiting the 2020 election could complicate the party’s campaign ahead of November’s vote.
