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After years of false claims on voting, Trump to give an address on election integrity
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− Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Trump will give an address on elections: what to expect President Trump, who for years has sowed doubt about the security of American elections, is scheduled to give a primetime address Thursday night about election integrity.
+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Trump will give an address on elections: what he said President Trump, who for years has sowed doubt about the security of American elections, just spoke about election integrity.
− Trump has long contended, without evidence, that he won the 2020 election Elections After years of false claims on voting, Trump to give an address on election integrity July 16, 20264:50 PM ET Danielle Kurtzleben
President Trump speaks at an event Wednesday in Carlisle, Pa.
+ Trump has long contended, without evidence, that he won the 2020 election.
− Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption
President Trump, who for years has sowed doubt about the security of American elections, is scheduled to give a primetime address Thursday night on election integrity.
The remarks come as his war in Iran approaches the five-month mark, some Republican lawmakers want him to focus on the economy, and as his approval rating remains near second-term lows.
Listen to NPR's live special coverage starting at 9 p.m.
+ Elections After years of false claims on elections, Trump alleges 'shocking vulnerabilities' Updated July 16, 202610:05 PM ET Originally published July 16, 20264:50 PM ET By
Shannon Bond
,
Danielle Kurtzleben
President Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White House.
− ET:
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Trump and his advisers have so far refused to detail what will be in the speech, though White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested at Thursday's press briefing that he would be presenting what she called "findings" about election integrity.
Elections President Trump cleans house at the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission "It will shock you if you have an honest eye listening to the president tonight and everything he is saying will be backed by facts and by evidence that will be provided this evening," she said.
Trump has long contended, without evidence, that he won the 2020 election — a lie that still comes up often in his speeches and social media posts.
+ Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The White House has released a series of documents that President Trump said in a primetime address reveals "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure."
Yet Trump, who for years has baselessly claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him, did not detail allegations of widespread illegal votes in that election.
− In addition, a federal intelligence report released in March 2021 concluded: "We have no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results."
This report was a declassified version of a report that was provided to Trump and other officials on Jan. 7, 2021.
+ Instead, he focused on allegations that China had accessed voter data and that noncitizens are found on certain states' voter rolls, among his claims.
− Trump has spent much of his second term attempting to shape elections and voting policy in unprecedented ways.
Leavitt also said Thursday that Trump would talk about the SAVE America Act, which would among other things require Americans to present proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a form of ID when voting.
+ Yet Trump has often spoken of issues with elections that fall apart under scrutiny.
− Opponents point to evidence that voter fraud is extremely rare and that some citizens do not readily have access to these documents. Trump has been pushing Congress for months to pass that legislation, which has stalled in the Senate.
+ His administration's system for identifying noncitizens on voter rolls has incorrectly flagged citizens, for example.
− Ahead of the speech, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he thinks it is part of an attempt to delegitimize the upcoming midterms.
+ The remarks came as his war in Iran approaches the five-month mark, some Republican lawmakers want him to focus on the economy, and as his approval rating remains near second-term lows.
− "Trump's primetime speech tonight isn't simply about relitigating his overwhelming defeat in the 2020 election; it's about undermining the 2026 election before a single vote has been cast," Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday. "Trump won't expose anything of substance about 2020 — he'll just echo the same stale, baseless, pathetic lies he's repeated for six years."
Elections Trump appeals a ruling that blocks parts of his order to restrict voting by mail When asked by a reporter whether Trump would accept the results of this November's elections, Leavitt did not directly answer, instead insisting that reporters should tune into the speech.
+ This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
− Presidential primetime addresses are relatively rare and often happen around major events. For example, earlier this term, Trump gave a primetime address to inform the nation about strikes on Iran in June 2025.
However, he has also given speeches that haven't been tied to breaking news. Trump's last primetime address came in April, when he updated the nation on the then-one-month-old war with Iran.
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