Donald Trump used the authority of the presidency and US intelligence agencies to try to undermine confidence in American elections in a presidential address on Thursday, according to analysts who say the speech appeared designed to destabilise the electoral system before November's midterm elections.
Speaking from the East Room at the White House, Trump claimed that China had illicitly acquired voter information on 220 million Americans and interfered to undermine his 2020 campaign, alleging that intelligence officials had suppressed the information. However, intelligence officials concluded in 2021 with high confidence that China did not deploy interference efforts intended to change the election outcome. A minority view suggested China took steps to undermine Trump through social media, but even that dissenting view found no evidence of interference in election processes.
The White House released formerly classified materials on Thursday attempting to challenge that conclusion, but the documents were heavily redacted. CNN reviewed them and found little new evidence, suggesting the release was a classic Trump tactic of flooding the zone with information to create confusion.
Trump also cited an FBI investigation into a voter-canvassing operation in Muskegon, Michigan, where canvassers submitted voter-registration applications with fake names. The incident did not result in illegitimate ballots being cast and was caught by the local clerk. He further claimed the Department of Homeland Security had identified over 270,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in four states, without detailing how that identification was made.
Trump, who has no constitutional power over elections, said his administration would take more action to control elections. The Department of Homeland Security was set to hold a briefing on Friday to discuss voting system vulnerabilities and would order states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls.
