Accusations against China, threats against TV networks: Big moments from Trump’s speech on elections

All eyes were on Donald Trump as he took to the podium to make a primetime address to the nation. While the US military continues to strike Iran, the US president chose to focus on another issue in his address — the integrity of elections.

In a 25-minute address, US President Donald Trump raised doubts about the results of past elections, reviving a subject he’s long used to make unproven claims and deny his loss in the 2020 election.

He accused China of interfering in the 2020 presidential election that he lost, while claiming government officials intentionally played down the efforts. The US president also announced that his administration was releasing tranches of classified documents to prove his allegations.

US President Trump also used this opportunity to push his ‘SAVE America Act’, calling it a landmark bill that Congress must pass “without delay” to restore faith in the American electoral system.

More from Explainers

Did US Supreme Court just make Trump the most powerful president?

Why Trump’s proposed citizenship lists may be unreliable

Trump makes big allegations against China

In his primetime address, while speaking on election integrity, Trump claimed that China sought to meddle in the 2020 election to prevent him from winning.

“The Chinese government wanted the US president to lose the next election,” he said during his primetime speech. “And the reason they wanted me to lose is that they knew I was wise to them.”

Trump cited intelligence agency findings to back up his claims, quoting CIA reports that he said showed China wanted to “leverage all domestic and foreign elements that were opposed to the US president in an effort to reduce the US president’s votes” as far back as mid-2018.

However, those claims first mentioned in a 2021 intelligence analysis instead concluded that China did not make any major effort to influence the election out of fear of upsetting its relations with the US.

In his fiery speech, US President Donald Trump accused China of orchestrating the “largest compromise of election data in history” and declaring an end to complacency in the face of “Chinese interference”. File image/Reuters

The US president further said that the newly declassified documents reveal that “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, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files. That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities”.

While it may sound surprising that China has access to voter data, this information is purchasable and obtainable by anyone.

He said that China’s access to voter files “presents an unprecedented election security nightmare”.

He further added that US intelligence agents then “worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling”.

“Members of the deep state — very, very famous group of people, in many cases in our intelligence agency — worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling,” said Trump in his primetime address.

He went on to accuse US spy agencies of knowing about compromised voter registration files in 2020, claiming that data across multiple states were “bought, stolen or hacked by China.”

“Yet those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden,” he alleged. “They did not disclose to me as president or to anyone else, and to the best of our knowledge, they did not inform Congress.”

Trump and ‘vulnerabilities’ of voting machines

China wasn’t Trump’s only target in his speech. According to the documents released by the White House while Trump was speaking, American voting machines are hackable by at least five foreign powers.

One assessment states, “We judge that the United States’ adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, as well as non-state groups, have the capability to compromise US election infrastructure.”

However, the report noted that, because US elections are decentralised and run by states and counties, any breaches would likely be localised and it “would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to alter the election outcome.”

In his speech, he noted that the machines are “terrible” and a “cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy”.

In his speech, US President Donald Trump called voting machines “terrible” and a “cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy”. File image/Reuters

Trump sows more distrust

In his address, the US president stated that he wants to protect elections. However, in his speech, he did the complete opposite. His comments, as many note, will sow deep distrust in the elections as he time and again claimed that the elections are flawed, highlighting how they are “rigged.”

Democrats warned that Trump was trying to revive false claims of past stolen elections in order to delegitimise the 2026 midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party is facing headwinds.

Senator Mark Warner, a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Trump’s “shocking bombshells” about China “totally bogus”.

“The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China did not even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election,” Warner wrote. “A single concurring opinion suggested China may have tried to sway voters’ opinions … but that’s been public knowledge since 2021.”

Other Democrats also reacted quite negatively to Trump’s primetime address, with Senator Ed Markey calling for Trump’s impeachment “for undermining and subverting our free and fair elections.”

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the US president “a feeble, unhinged conspiracy-peddling 80-year-old failed president.”

Making a case for Save America Act

While concluding his speech, Donald Trump, unsurprisingly, pushed for the passage of the ‘Save America Act’, his long-sought bill that would impose voter identification and registration requirements and significantly curtail the use of mail-in voting.

This legislation has been stuck in the Senate, where there is not sufficient support among Republicans to pass it in the face of Democratic opposition.

Many believe that Trump's speech was an effort to convince Republicans to push forth the Save America Act. File image/Reuters

“Congress must pass the Save America Act!” Trump shouted at one stage.

Many analysts note that the speech, in fact, was Trump’s attempt of getting the bill the support from the Republicans. As Caroline Heldman, a political scientist at Occidental College, told CBC News, that the speech didn’t contain “anything new” other than more unsubstantiated claims.

She said she thinks the speech was targeted at Senate Republicans in an effort to pressure them to pass the SAVE America Act, something they’re hesitant to do. “The reason that they’re not moving on this is it’s not entirely clear it’s going to benefit them. In fact, it might harm them,” she said.

Small mention of Iran

Trump mainly focused his speech on election fraud. However, he briefly mentioned the US strikes on Iran and the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said that the US is “winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly.”

US President Donald took time out of his speech to issue threats to TV networks that didn't show his speech live. Reuters

Trump makes threats against TV networks

In his second term, Trump has taken on the media on several occasions, and his primetime address wasn’t any different. The US president called out the media outlets for not carrying it live and accused them of being “part of a plot.”

He called on broadcasting licences to be withdrawn from networks refusing to carry live his prime-time speech on election fraud, implying baselessly that they are involved in attempts to rig elections. “They and others in the media are part of a plot. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licences. They use our public multi-billion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing,” he said, calling out ABC and NBC by name.

Prior to Trump’s speech, some TV networks had said they would not carry the speech live but would air it on their streaming services. ABC, NBC, and CNN decided not to air the remarks live but to carry them in full on their streaming services and break into network coverage as needed.

With inputs from agencies