President Trump to deliver prime time address on elections, though details are slim

+ Politics President Trump to deliver prime time address on elections, though details are slim July 16, 20264:12 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered Danielle Kurtzleben President Trump to deliver prime time address on elections, though details are slim Listen &middot; 4:17 4:17 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5896195/nx-s1-9851569" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript President Trump is scheduled to deliver a primetime address from the White House focused on election security, though details about the speech are slim. Sponsor Message Transcript SCOTT DETROW, HOST: President Trump will deliver a primetime address tonight. Trump says it will be about what he calls free and fair elections, though the White House has declined to say more about the details. And, of course, when it comes to that topic, Trump has long pushed disinformation. However, the White House has pushed networks to air the speech tonight. Here is White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier today.

+ (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) KAROLINE LEAVITT: I think that the mainstream media should air the president's speech and allow the American people to draw their own conclusions from it. DETROW: NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to tell us what to expect amid all of this uncertainty. Hey, Danielle. DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, Scott. DETROW: What should we expect - if we know - from the speech? KURTZLEBEN: Well, Leavitt told reporters today that this will be about election integrity, this being a White House that, like you said, talks a lot about voter fraud. And to be clear, there is no evidence of fraud on a widespread basis. Now, today at the White House press briefing, Leavitt said Trump would be presenting some sort of findings tonight. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) LEAVITT: 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. KURTZLEBEN: She didn't say what, though. Leavitt repeatedly cautioned reporters that they don't know what he's going to say, and so they shouldn't prejudge the speech. DETROW: But we do have the context of Trump continually trying to raise doubts about election security. KURTZLEBEN: Yeah. He repeats the lie all the time that he won the election in 2020. He says it in speeches and on social media, so it won't be a surprise if that's a focus tonight. Now, again, there's no evidence he won in 2020. Multiple reviews have debunked that. But like I said, Leavitt wouldn't say that a discussion of '20 is or isn't what's coming tonight. DETROW: And what do you make of the timing of this? Because Trump has many other things to think about right now. This election was six years ago. He has won a presidential election since then, and in the more immediate term, he's restarted strikes against Iran, and a lot of Americans are worried about the economy. KURTZLEBEN: That's right, and prices have remained high since the start of the Iran war. Now, gas prices have eased some, but they're still well above where they were before the war, and gas prices raise the prices of lots of other goods, like groceries. DETROW: Which is something that's fair to say is having a real impact on the political moment, right? KURTZLEBEN: Very much. With midterms coming, Trump's approval rating is also still low. It's at or below 40%, depending on which average you're looking at. And that is no help to Republicans. And some of those fellow Republicans just wish Trump was doing more to show voters that their party cares. Today at the Capitol, Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn told reporters that he wishes Trump focused more on 2026 than on 2020. But there's one more piece of context here, which is that Trump is giving this speech at the same time that he's pushing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which focuses heavily on voter ID. DETROW: What else is in that bill? KURTZLEBEN: Well, it would, among other things, require Americans to present proof of citizenship when they register to vote and then a form of ID when voting. Now, again, voter fraud is rare, and opponents also point out that some citizens do not readily have access to all of those documents. But Trump has been pushing Congress for months to pass this bill. He, in fact, refused to sign a recent bipartisan housing bill because Congress just hadn't passed SAVE America yet, though, that housing bill became law anyway without his signature. DETROW: Danielle, let's take a step back for a moment because primetime addresses are often reserved for major events, you know, announcing military actions or addressing disasters or tragedies. What makes this kind of address different from the standard political rally or speech that a president gives? KURTZLEBEN: Yeah. That's all absolutely right. Often, these speeches are about conveying information or an important, generally apolitical message. A recent example would be President Joe Biden, in 2024, addressing the attempt on Donald Trump's life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. And Trump's own last primetime address was an update on the war in Iran back in April. Now, how this all works is the White House requests time from every major network to carry these addresses live to reach the largest number of people possible, meaning those networks can break into regular programming to air the speech. Today at the briefing, Leavitt pushed networks to carry the speech, but it's still unclear whether networks are going to follow through. All that said, NPR will be carrying it. DETROW: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, thank you so much. KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 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