• Alleges China obtained 220 million US voter files; says hundreds of thousands of noncitizens registered to vote
• Beijing dismisses allegations as fabricated, politically motivated
• Expert says speech recycled debunked charges
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Thursday revived sweeping and unsupported claims of voter fraud and Chinese meddling during a primetime White House address, firing a clear warning shot ahead of midterm elections that many expect him to dispute.
Trump said he was declassifying intelligence showing that China illicitly acquired 220 million US voter files.
The 25-minute speech underscored his effort to make election security a central political issue before November’s midterms, when Republicans will defend their slender congressional majorities.
“Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,” Trump said.
He also claimed more than 250,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in four states. However, an unclassified 2021 US intelligence assessment found no evidence that Beijing or any foreign actor affected the 2020 vote that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Beijing quickly denied the claims. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian called the allegations “pure fabrications and malicious smears” during a news conference on Friday. Domestically, Democrats and election experts accused Trump of trying to undermine confidence in the upcoming midterms.
Save America Act
During his remarks, Trump pressed lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act. The legislation would require proof of citizenship to register to vote — already required under existing law in federal elections — and photo identification at polling places, while curtailing mail-in ballots.
The bill has stalled in the Senate amid fierce Democratic opposition.
Trump also attacked US broadcasters, including ABC and NBC, that refused to interrupt programming to carry his speech live, baselessly implying they were involved in election-rigging attempts.
“They and others in the media are part of a plot,” Trump said. “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licences.”
Inconsistencies
Despite Trump’s assertion that the declassified material revealed “shocking vulnerabilities”, many documents appeared inconsistent with that claim.
One CIA document concerned Venezuela’s election, while another assessed that vote tabulation systems would be difficult to manipulate on a scale wide enough to compromise results.
A third document detailed efforts by Chinese spies to target Biden’s campaign and noted that Beijing “does not currently intend to covertly interfere to try to sway the outcome of the election,” although it said China might later decide to do so.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, called it a “tired speech with recycled and debunked claims”.
Senate Democrat Dick Durbin described the address as “a dangerous attempt to resurrect disproven lies to undermine future elections before a single vote is cast”.
Trump has never accepted his 2020 defeat. More than 60 lawsuits, along with recounts and his own Justice Department, found no evidence of large-scale fraud capable of changing the outcome.
Some Republican leaders have urged Trump to focus on issues that matter most to Americans. Democrats need to flip only three Republican seats to take a majority in the 435-seat US House.
Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2026