Less than four months before the mid-term elections, Donald Trump has relaunched very serious accusations about the vulnerabilities of the American electoral system, literally defined as “compromised”. In his speech to the nation from the White House, the US president asked Congress to approve the Save America Act, announcing the declassification of intelligence documents which, according to him, would demonstrate how the system is “catastrophically below” the required security standards. The tycoon also launched a frontal attack on China, accused of being responsible for the defeat against Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections, without however providing tangible evidence.
The electoral system compromised
Trump opened the speech by claiming the achievements of his administration: “I am proud to announce that our country is safer, stronger and much richer than it has ever been before. Less than two years ago, we inherited an economic and social disaster.” The president then shifted attention to the “election security crisis”, calling for the approval of the Save America Act, the reform that proposes to radically change the rules of the American electoral system: “The bill requires that all voters show a valid identification document to vote and provide proof of citizenship. Except in cases of illness, disability, military service or travel, there should be no corrupt mail-in ballots.”
“No country can be great without fair and honest elections – he added -. These reforms are urgently needed to eliminate the vulnerabilities I have described”. Trump also called on US citizens to “call your representatives in the House and Senate and demand that they pass the Save America Act without delay. Every American deserves to know that when they cast a vote it will be accurately counted in a secure system, but unfortunately, the system we have today falls catastrophically short of this standard.” During the speech, the president announced “the immediate declassification and release of critical information,” claiming that “there are shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.” “This evidence – he declared – demonstrates that the electoral system we have dangerously exposes us to levels never thought possible of cyber exploitation and foreign interference”.
The accusations against China
Among the most serious allegations, Trump alleged that “newly declassified documents reveal that, beginning in the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China perpetrated what is believed to be the largest voter data breach in history, illicitly acquiring the data of 220 million U.S. voters.” According to the president, the stolen data would include “names, addresses, telephone numbers, political preferences and other sensitive data necessary for voter registration”. He then called the affair “an unprecedented nightmare for electoral security”. The president’s claims, however, are not accompanied by new evidence of manipulation of the election results. An initial analysis of the declassified documents, reported by CNN, finds that the material largely concerns vulnerabilities already known and contained in a 2021 US intelligence assessment. The same analysis underlines that no elements emerge that demonstrate alterations in the votes or results of the 2020, 2022 or 2024 elections.
Even conservative journalist John Solomon, who worked with the White House to release the documents, acknowledged after the speech that the intelligence community has “zero evidence that a foreign power changed a vote in 2020, 2022 or 2024.”
The attack on broadcasters
The intervention was met with criticism from the democratic opposition. Democratic governors accused Trump of wanting to “intimidate and silence voters,” arguing that “no amount of lies or conspiracy theories can change the fact that American elections have repeatedly been proven safe and reliable.” On a media level, the speech was not broadcast live by some of the main US broadcasters, including ABC and NBC, which chose to maintain normal programming. A decision criticized by Republican Senator Eric Schmitt, according to whom “if broadcasters were truly serving the public interest, they would broadcast it”.