Trump Makes Election Security Central Issue in Republicans' Midterm Campaign

U.S. President Donald Trump intensified his effort to make election security a central issue in the November midterm elections, claiming that China interfered in the 2020 presidential election despite a U.S. intelligence assessment that found no evidence to support that allegation.

In a nearly 30-minute prime-time address from the White House on Thursday, Trump revived many of his longstanding claims that U.S. elections are vulnerable to fraud, citing newly declassified documents that he said exposed "shocking vulnerabilities" in the election system.

However, many of the released documents did not support his assertions. While Trump argued that the U.S. electoral system was highly vulnerable, he presented no evidence that any votes were altered or election results manipulated in 2020.

China strongly rejected the accusations on Friday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian described Trump's allegations as "totally fabricated" and "a malicious smear," reiterating that Beijing has never interfered in U.S. elections and adheres to a policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs.

Trump also urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, legislation that would introduce stricter voter identification and citizenship verification requirements. The bill remains stalled in the Senate due to strong Democratic opposition. Election experts and previous investigations have consistently found that voter fraud in the United States is extremely rare.

The speech came at a politically difficult time for Trump and Republicans, who face the possibility of losing one or both chambers of Congress in November amid public dissatisfaction over the Iran war and high energy prices. Some Republican leaders have urged Trump to focus on inflation and the cost of living rather than revisiting the 2020 election.

Trump claimed his administration had uncovered evidence showing China illegally obtained data on 220 million U.S. voters, including names and addresses, and accused elements of the U.S. intelligence community of downplaying China's activities.

However, a 2021 U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that no foreign actor attempted or succeeded in altering any technical aspect of the 2020 election, including voter registration systems, ballots, vote tabulation, or election results. The report, conducted under then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, found that while China had collected publicly available information on U.S. voters and political figures for years, there was no evidence it sought to manipulate election outcomes.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the voter information China obtained was not confidential, as such data are routinely purchased by political consultants, and could not be used to alter election results.

Several of the newly declassified intelligence documents also appeared to contradict Trump's claims. One CIA document focused on Venezuela's election rather than the United States, another concluded that vote-tabulation systems would be difficult to manipulate on a scale capable of changing election results, while a third stated that China did not intend to covertly influence the outcome of the 2020 U.S. election.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, dismissed Trump's allegations, saying the U.S. intelligence community had unanimously concluded that China did not attempt to change a single vote in the 2020 election.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in April, 63% of Republican voters believe Trump's claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Trump also asserted that more than 275,000 non-citizens were registered to vote in four states, though he provided no evidence that any had actually cast ballots. Studies have consistently found that voting by non-citizens in U.S. elections is exceedingly rare.