Trump attacks U.S. election system as rigged, targeting 2026 midterm voters

U.S. President Donald Trump used a prime-time address Thursday night to make sweeping claims that the American election system is broken and vulnerable — though he began by insisting his goal was not to undermine confidence in voting.

During his 27-minute address, Trump painted a picture of an election system riddled with vulnerabilities from hacking, foreign interference, non-citizen voting, and mail-in ballot fraud, all allegedly covered up by what he called the "deep state" of intelligence officials. "There's no third world country that has elections like we have," he said at one point. He made five key claims: that China obtained voter files on 270 million Americans; that China tried undermining domestic confidence in him ahead of 2020; that voting machines are exposed to hacking; that hundreds of thousands of dead people and non-citizens are registered to vote; and that the intelligence community hid evidence of fraud.

Observers noted the message appeared aimed less at relitigating 2020 and more at making Americans fear for the integrity of the vote heading into the 2026 midterms, when Republicans risk losing their slim House majority and face potential Senate losses. Polling suggests Democrats could gain enough House seats to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Sue Gordon, who served as principal deputy director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, criticized the address. "I think this was a dangerous speech about an incredibly important topic," she told CNN. "It does the work of our adversaries. See, they don't have to interfere. They just have to convince us to not trust our democracy." Gordon said she saw no evidence that China's meddling affected the outcome of the 2020 vote.