President Donald Trump delivered a 25-minute primetime televised address on Thursday announcing the declassification of intelligence reports. He accused China of compromising U.S. election data, claiming that Beijing illicitly acquired 220 million voter files, including names, addresses, and other registration information. Trump described these findings as shocking vulnerabilities in the election system and a major threat to democracy.
These claims contradict previous investigations and U.S. intelligence assessments. While the U.S. has investigated reports of foreign election interference since at least 2016, no evidence has emerged that such attempts altered election outcomes. Specifically, intelligence assessments found no evidence that Beijing altered the results of the 2020 election.
The address revives Trump's long-running attacks on election security and repeats claims about the 2020 election, despite findings from courts, audits, and the Justice Department that no fraud altered the result. This effort underscores an attempt to make election security a central political issue ahead of the midterm elections in November.