Trump Says China Hacked Voter Data of 220 Million People in 18 States, Orders Investigations

President Trump stated in a July 16, 2026, prime-time address that the U.S. voting system is so broken that no one can possibly defend it and is dangerously exposed to foreign hacking, including by China. He directed the White House to release heavily redacted documents on the claimed vulnerabilities and asserted that China carried out the largest compromise of election data in history by accessing records of 220 million people in 18 states beginning in the 2020 cycle.

Trump ordered the FBI, the director of national intelligence and other agencies to investigate and prosecute those responsible for an alleged cover-up of the compromise. Trump called on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act requiring voter identification and questioned the tally in California's June primary, which he said took a month to complete.

Elections Assistance Commission. The Justice Department has continued efforts to obtain state voter rolls despite more than a dozen court rulings against the requests and announced plans to send election monitors to some states. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll released the same day showed Trump's approval rating at 37 percent.

Sen. ) said audits, recounts and more than 60 court cases found no evidence of widespread voter fraud and that intelligence agencies unanimously concluded China did not attempt to change any votes in 2020. Rep.

Mike Lee (R-Utah) said passage of the SAVE America Act is more important than ever. Major broadcast networks declined to carry the full 26-minute speech and instead reported on its contents.