US election system is ‘so damaged, so susceptible that nobody can defend it’, says Trump | World Information
President Donald Trump speaks within the East Room of the White Home, Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Washington. (Picture: AP) In a primetime deal with Thursday night time, US President Trump argued that the US election system is dangerously uncovered to hacking and manipulation, saying it falls “catastrophically brief” of the safety Individuals deserve . He tied the declare to long-disputed allegations about his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, arguing that with out main modifications, November’s midterms are susceptible to being “rigged and stolen.”
He additionally renewed his name for Congress to cross the Save America Act, framing it as a commonsense repair, regardless that the invoice wouldn’t have an effect on this 12 months’s midterms.
How does he describe the system’s flaws
Trump described the present voting and mail-in system as “not defensible,” claiming lots of of thousands and thousands of American voter recordsdata have ended up in overseas governments’ fingers and that vote-counting machines stay uncovered to hacking and manipulation.
.@POTUS: Put collectively, these disclosures reveal an election system so damaged and susceptible that NO ONE can probably defend it.
— Tons of of thousands and thousands of U.S. voter recordsdata are within the fingers of overseas governments.
— Our machines and ballot-counting techniques are uncovered to hacking… pic.twitter.com/Lj418EpSfk
— Fast Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
He asserted that lots of of 1000’s of non-citizens and deceased individuals stay lively on voter rolls, whereas the nation continues to carry elections with out voter ID or proof-of-citizenship necessities and with tens of thousands and thousands of mail ballots in circulation. He stated proof of fraud has been “buried” and known as for sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting.
Who’s he blaming
Trump pointed to what he known as the “Deep State,” accusing intelligence officers of suppressing proof of Chinese language interference within the 2020 election and hiding it from each him and the general public. He claimed intelligence businesses realized in 2020 that voter registration recordsdata had been compromised however sat on the data.
.@POTUS: Newly declassified paperwork present that over a interval of years beginning throughout the 2020 election cycle, the Folks’s Republic of China carried out what’s believed to be the biggest compromise of election information in historical past — leading to China’s illicit acquisition of 220… pic.twitter.com/S6qudP0QoP
— Fast Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
Nonetheless, the officers he’s criticizing led businesses he himself appointed, and there’s no report of him objecting when those self same businesses briefed him in January 2021 that no overseas nation had altered vote totals or fabricated ballots.
When and the way did the disclosures occur
Timed to coincide with the speech, the White Home launched a brand new web site Thursday publishing declassified intelligence paperwork that Trump says expose main “areas of concern” in election infrastructure.
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One doc a Nationwide Intelligence Council memorandum dated January 15, 2020 and newly authorized for launch this July assessed that adversaries together with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea had the technical functionality to entry election-related techniques, whereas cautioning that assessors didn’t know whether or not any of them had concrete plans to control outcomes.
.@POTUS: To disclose simply how susceptible our elections proceed to be, we’re releasing the outcomes of a shocking investigation by @DHSgov — which carried out a overview of state voter rolls and public information and recognized roughly 278,000 non-citizens who’re registered to vote… pic.twitter.com/MOaF80HARD
— Fast Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
As a result of the trove was launched simply earlier than the speech, unbiased verification of Trump’s characterization of the paperwork wasn’t attainable in actual time a timing that critics say could also be deliberate, because it lets sweeping claims land earlier than anybody can examine them.
Trump additionally renewed his opposition to mail-in voting, calling for it to be successfully banned, and argued present safeguards make dishonest too simple. He spent the opening minutes of the deal with working by way of an inventory of administration accomplishments, together with decrease drug costs, earlier than pivoting to election safety; he didn’t deal with the continuing battle with Iran or the US navy’s expanded strikes that day.
The speech drew a blended response from broadcasters: ABC and NBC opted to stream it moderately than air it reside on their most important networks, CBS ran a particular report as a substitute of a reside broadcast, and CNN stated it might cowl the remarks as a information occasion moderately than carry them unedited.
