President Trump Questions U.S. Voting System in Prime-Time Address

President Trump delivered a 26-minute prime-time address to the nation from the East Room of the White House on Thursday, July 16, 2026. He stated that the U.S. voting system is “so broken” that “no one can possibly defend it” and asserted it was “dangerously” exposed to potential foreign hacking, including by China.

Trump said he had directed the White House to release heavily redacted documents purporting to show vulnerabilities and alleged China carried out the “largest compromise of election data history,” accessing voter data of 220 million people in 18 states starting in the 2020 cycle.

Trump directed the FBI, the director of national intelligence and other agencies to investigate and prosecute those responsible for an alleged cover-up. He called on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act voter ID law and cast doubt on California’s June primary vote count, saying it took a month to tally ballots.

Trump’s approval rating stood at 37 percent in a Washington Post-Ipsos poll released July 16. Last week he fired all remaining members of the bipartisan U.S. Elections Assistance Commission, and the Justice Department has sought to compel states to turn over voter rolls despite more than a dozen court rulings against the effort; the department also said it would send election monitors to some states.

Sen. ) noted that audits, recounts and more than 60 court cases found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Sen. ) said intelligence agencies unanimously agreed China did not try to change a single vote in 2020.

Rep. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said it is more important than ever to pass the SAVE America Act. Major broadcast networks declined to air the speech in full and instead reported on it.