President Donald Trump mentioned in a primetime handle Thursday that the White Home has launched paperwork on its web site that it claims are a collection of beforehand categorized U.S. intelligence group assessments and different reviews that he mentioned expose vulnerabilities in digital voting.
The president additionally accused China of compromising voter information from the US presidential election in 2020.
Trump has lengthy pushed debunked conspiracy theories to assert that his 2020 election loss was fraudulent. It isn’t instantly clear what allegations he’ll make as a part of his speech.
President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White Home in Washington, July 16, 2026.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Pictures
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt was tight-lipped about what the president would say in her each day briefing moreover that he’ll focus on “defending the integrity of our elections.”
When requested by a reporter about considerations from some Republicans that the president was litigating previous elections that would flip off some swing voters, Leavitt mentioned that Trump would deal with safe elections as key to American democracy.
“I’ve seen numerous reporting and, frankly, misreporting about what the president will say. I feel the American individuals can be relieved to listen to what they’re listening to from the president of the US and his dedication to transparency and the deal with the integrity of our elections tonight,” she mentioned.
“I feel that everybody ought to tune in tonight, together with the individuals on this room,” Levitt mentioned. And also you ought to report on the president’s speech and the findings that he’s going to disclose on this speech with a little bit little bit of honesty and a little bit little bit of integrity, as a result of it does, it can shock you when you’ve got an trustworthy eye listening to the president tonight and all the pieces he’s saying can be backed by, by, by details and by proof that can be offered this night.”
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivers a press briefing within the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on the White Home in Washington, July 16, 2026.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Picture
When later pressed by ABC Information’ Rachel Scott concerning the political considerations of some Republicans, Leavitt mentioned solely that folks ought to wait till they’ve heard the speech.
Democrats launched a prebuttal of the speech on Thursday, with Sen. John Ossoff calling it “a prime-time presidential bitter grapes handle to pursue his six-year-old grievances concerning the 2020 election.”
Regardless of Trump’s claims of voter fraud that contributed to his 2020 election loss, officers have discovered no proof of widespread voter fraud.
Requested concerning the speech, which he introduced on his social media platform on Monday, Trump mentioned it was “actually huge information,” mentioning the significance of “free and truthful elections.”
“Thursday is, it does not get greater as a result of with out free and truthful elections, you do not have a rustic. We’ll be discussing different issues, too. However — however it is going to be a really huge announcement,” Trump mentioned within the Oval Workplace on Tuesday.
Trump lately put in loyalist Invoice Pulte, who has no earlier nationwide safety expertise, to guide DNI and has mentioned that he wished Pulte to declassify info and fireplace scores of skilled profession workers.
Below the primary Trump administration, officers already detailed efforts by Iran, China and Russia to affect the 2020 election, although officers later decided that none of their interference would have modified the election outcome. Initially Trump administration officers instructed China was additionally concerned in influencing the election, a declare that was later decided by Trump’s intelligence group to be false.
