Trump uses primetime address to raise doubts about US elections ahead of
midterms
[July 17, 2026]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE, ERIC TUCKER and COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the
nation Thursday to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the
legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for
more restrictive voting laws ahead of the midterms.
Trump's amplification of debunked theories about the election six years
ago and his inability to accept his loss led to one of the darker
moments in American history when a mob of his supporters led a violent
attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in the final days of his
first term.
Now back in power, Trump opted to revisit the subject, despite
persistent voter concerns about the cost of living, American forces
escalating strikes on Iran in a conflict for which there is no end in
sight, and an immigration crackdown facing bipartisan scrutiny for its
sometimes deadly tactics.
His address Thursday hinged on contradictions.
A twice-elected president complained about his one personal defeat,
alleged a cover-up by officials in his own first administration and
surfaced claims about countries attempting to harm his own prospects
while staying silent on steps taken by other nations to boost him.
Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID
bill in Congress that has not advanced because it lacks enough support
from Republicans.
“America is back and doing really well, but we still have a major
challenge that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be
great without fair and honest elections,” he said.
Trump doesn't raise doubts about his election wins
Trump began Thursday night with a stark warning about what he described
as flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously
classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections, when he
lost the presidential election and his party suffered losses.
Trump’s speech presented allegations of interference and influence in
ways that lacked key context, and did not produce evidence that votes
had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.
Notably, Trump focused on China but glossed over Russia, a country that
intelligence officials have said favored Trump in 2016 and 2020 and
engaged in wide-ranging influence campaigns aimed at boosting him over
Democrat Joe Biden in the latter campaign.
Despite focusing on China in his speech, Trump did not criticize or
issue a warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he has long
praised.
Election security experts say America’s decentralized voting system,
with the power over elections residing with the states instead of the
federal government, is a strength. Americans vote in more than 10,000
different jurisdictions with different rules, making the nations’
elections extraordinarily complicated but safe from widespread fraud.
No credible intelligence has emerged showing that the vote count in 2020
was manipulated by foreign actors. Repeated audits and reviews --
manyrun by Republicans, including Trump’s own then-attorney general --
have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020.
Even if substantiated, Trump’s claims did not amount to conduct that
would have altered the outcome of any race, let alone the 2020 race for
the White House.
He also did not raise doubts about his election wins in 2016 or 2024.
As Trump spoke, the White House unveiled a website containing documents
that were presented without context and included selectively released
pieces of investigation files, intelligence analysis and correspondence.
Former intelligence official calls address ‘dangerous’
Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence in
Trump’s first term, called the president’s address “a dangerous speech
about an incredibly important topic.” She said the intelligence
community throughout Trump’s first term was alarmed about foreign
interference in elections, but Trump scoffed at them, angered at the
investigation of his campaign’s relationship with Russia.
“He had an entire term to deal with it and I don’t know how you can
believe how the same community that told him about it, that was
excoriated about it” wouldn’t warn him in 2020, Gordon said on CNN.
Conservative commentator John Solomon, who joined the White House staff
last month and was seated in the East Room for Trump’s speech, later
told MS NOW that “the intelligence community has zero evidence that
someone has flipped – that a foreign power flipped -- a vote in 2020,
‘22 or ’24.”
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President Donald Trump gestures after speaking in the East Room of
the White House, Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Washington. (Saul
Loeb/Pool via AP)
But, he added, “We’re not through all the documents.”
Trump urged the Justice Department to conduct investigations and
prosecutions, though it was unclear from his speech what sort of
criminal conduct — if any — could be identified, proven and charged.
In a contrast with his concerns about foreign interference in
elections, Trump in his new budget proposes a $707 million cut in
the U.S. Cybsersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, the group charged
with protecting American election systems from overseas
cyberattacks. Trump and other conservatives have been frustrated
that the organization pushed back on election claims in 2020 and
beyond.
Some networks did not air it live
In past presidencies, primetime addresses have typically been
reserved for major milestones or nationally significant events.
Trump last spoke to the nation in April, giving an address on the
Iran war a month after it started. He said then that the U.S. would
accomplish its objectives “very shortly” and that “the hard part is
done, so it should be easy.” The war, however, has dragged on and
strikes between the U.S. and Iran have intensified this week.
Trump also delivered a politically charged primetime speech in
December in which he sought to blame the challenging economic
climate on Democrats.
ABC, NBC and CNN did not air Thursday's remarks live but carried
them in full on their streaming services.
CBS and MS NOW both cut away from Trump’s speech before he finished,
while Fox News continued to carry his address.
Trump called out the media outlets for not carrying it live, accused
them of being “part of a plot" and suggested their broadcast
licenses be revoked.
Networks typically — but not always — carry presidential addresses
to the nation live. In 2022, when Biden delivered a primetime
address full of warnings about Trump and his adherents’ “extreme
ideology,” the networks did not carry it live.
In 2014, the major networks chose to stick with their primetime
programming instead of airing an address by President Barack Obama
on his plans for immigration reform.
Democrats accuse Trump of seeking to discredit next election
Democrats warned that Trump was trying to revive false claims of
past stolen elections in order to delegitimize the 2026 midterm
elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party is facing headwinds.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia called Trump’s claims
“totally bogus.”
“The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China
did not even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election,”
Warner said in a statement on X. “A single concurring opinion
suggested China may have tried to sway voters’ opinions … but that’s
been public knowledge since 2021."
Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the
administration committee that handles federal voting issues and
elections, said Trump is trying to sow confusion before the midterm
elections.
“This is a pretext for the president, I think, calling into dispute
the 2026 elections,” Morelle said on C-SPAN, adding that “we have
secure elections.”
“I heard no concrete allegations that foreign actors actually
changed the results of an American election,” Democratic Sen. Chris
Coons of Delaware said on CNN.
___
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro and Will
Weissert in Washington, Ali Swenson and Jocelyn Noveck in New York
and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.
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