Donald Trump has once again repeated his claim that China “rigged” the 2020 election, in which he lost to Joe Biden. During a 25-minute address from the White House in the early hours of Friday (July 17), the U.S. president revisited his allegations of election fraud, arguing that the American electoral system remains vulnerable to foreign interference and improper voter registrations. According to Axios, Trump sought to rally support for the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require mandatory proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
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Trump insists China “rigged” the 2020 election
Citing recently declassified raw intelligence, Trump claimed that China carried out “the largest election data breach in history” during the 2020 election. He alleged that Beijing gained access to the personal data of 220 million American voters and used it to create “ballots in favor of Biden.”
Analysts and election officials have pointed out, however, that voter rolls containing names and addresses are publicly available in most U.S. states and, in many cases, are published online for transparency purposes. The mere possession of this data, they stress, does not constitute evidence of interference in the election outcome.
Trump accuses the “deep state”
Trump also accused the U.S. intelligence community — what he calls the “Deep State” — of withholding documents about Chinese activities during his first term in office. Yet many of the documents released by the White House during the speech itself paint a far more measured picture of China’s role than the one Trump described. Experts also note that raw intelligence data is not the same as formally assessed and verified intelligence reports.
Furthermore, by placing blame on the intelligence agencies of that period, Trump effectively shields his own administration at the time — including current CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who in 2020 served as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) — from responsibility for failing to identify what he now characterizes as a massive threat.
His statements also contradict the official Intelligence Community Assessment, which found no evidence of foreign interference that altered “any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 presidential election” — including voter registration, casting of ballots, vote counting, or the reporting of results.
Claims of illegal immigrants on voter rolls
Trump further alleged that approximately 278,000 undocumented immigrants are registered to vote in several key swing states, and claimed that an ongoing Department of Homeland Security investigation would reveal that the actual nationwide figure is far higher.
He offered no evidence, however, that any of those individuals actually cast a ballot.
Immigration advocacy organizations have long pointed out that registering to vote would be among the last things an undocumented immigrant would choose to do, as it would effectively alert authorities to their presence in the country. Moreover, no independent investigation has ever concluded that widespread voting by undocumented immigrants occurred in the 2020 election or in any subsequent races.
Trump also raised concerns about “shocking vulnerabilities” in election systems, framing cyberthreats as a growing danger to electoral infrastructure. However, he stopped short of claiming that any cyberattacks had actually resulted in manipulated votes or altered election outcomes.
The alarm he expressed stands in stark contrast to his own administration’s actions: his government has made significant cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the body that assists states and local authorities in protecting their election systems.
His administration has also significantly curtailed the role of the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission, which provides technical guidance for the conduct of elections.
An eye on the midterms and 2028
Trump called on states and local authorities to work with the federal government to remove ineligible voters from the rolls.
While the request is framed as a measure to protect election integrity, Democrats and critics argue it signals an effort to purge voter rolls in a way that would benefit Republicans. Not all Republicans, however, agree with his decision to keep revisiting the issue of election fraud.
According to analysts, some members of his political team believe the rhetoric will energize his base ahead of the November elections. Top Republican strategists and pollsters, on the other hand, argue that swing voters have little appetite for relitigating this narrative.
“It’s a stupid, really stupid move,” said a Republican pollster who works on multiple campaigns and has tested the effectiveness of the “stolen election” narrative.
In focus groups, the pollster noted, participants were shown past clips of Trump making similar claims — and the reaction, even among undecided voters who believe there were problems with the 2020 election, was negative. “Even swing voters who think something went wrong in the election, when they hear Trump talk about it, they just… roll their eyes,” the pollster said.
