Trump says China accessed 220 million US voter files, declassifies new intelligence
President Donald Trump on Thursday night announced the immediate declassification of intelligence he says shows China illegally attained 220 million U.S. voter files. The president called it the “largest compromise of election data in history.” This was one of a handful of claims Trump stated Thursday night.
U.S. spy agencies, Trump said, started learning about “the compromise of voter registration files in 2020,” but did not disclose the information to him at the time.
Several states are named in documents Trump cited as having their election data accessed by China. These states all offer historical voter registration information by request, with some requiring a fee.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said in a statement to Reuters that China “has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.”
Documents Trump talked about in his speech were posted on the White House website. Many of the documents remained highly redacted. One stated that China had extensive plans for cyber operations to sway public opinion against the Trump administration and the U.S. government.
“Members of the deep state, very very famous groups of people, many cases, in our intelligence agency, work to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling,” he said.
A report previously declassified in 2021 by the National Intelligence Council found that while China considered influence efforts aimed at changing the U.S. presidential election, it ultimately did not deploy them.
“We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts,” the report said. China, according to the NIC, sought stability in its relationship with the U.S. and did not view Trump nor Biden winning as being “advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling.”
Voter fraud claims
Trump said in his speech that the newly released intelligence underscores “why we must take urgent action to ensure that our own system can never, ever, be hacked or compromised.”
Trump has made claims about fraud and foreign interference costing him the presidency in 2020 before. However, these allegations have been rejected by dozens of courts, ballot audits, state election officials and his own first-term Justice Department. The Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, which includes the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, concluded that the 2020 election “was the most secure in American history.”
Experts told Straight Arrow it would be virtually impossible to hack a U.S. election. Because elections are managed by states and administered locally, it would require someone to gain physical control of thousands of voting machines and manipulate each one in distinct and unique ways.
In expert analysis, America is ranked among the countries with some of the freest and fairest elections in the world.
Before Trump spoke, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters in D.C. that the speech has more to do with the 2026 midterm elections than 2020.
“He’s scared to death that he will lose in 2026, and so he’s trying to change the subject,” Schumer said, adding: “The bottom line is, if Trump wants to win the American people over, instead of the bullsh-t that he’s peddling about 2020, he ought to focus on lowering people’s costs, getting rid of the chaos in administration, getting rid of the corruption.”
Trump again calls on Congress to pass SAVE America Act
During his address before the nation, Trump again urged Congress to pass the Republican-backed SAVE America Act. The legislation restricts mail-in voting and requires documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo identification to cast a ballot in all states.
“How easy is that to do? Unless you want to cheat,” Trump said about the SAVE Act. “This landmark bill requires that all voters must show photo voter ID. How simple is that?”
State reviews and independent research show that voter fraud, including illegal voting by noncitizens, is exceedingly rare. Critics of the SAVE Act also argue it would block citizens from voting.
“I ask you to pick up your phone tomorrow, call representatives in the House and Senate, and demand that they pass the SAVE America Act without delay,” Trump said.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
