Fact-checking Trump's address on China, the 2020 election and what documents show

Former President Donald Trump delivered a primetime address reiterating his long-held claims that the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, was rigged and stolen due to foreign interference, primarily from China. Trump also alleged that "deep state" actors concealed damaging information from him and the public.

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Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost.

During his nearly 30-minute speech on July 16, Trump cited declassified and partially redacted intelligence documents, without clearly distinguishing between potential Chinese plans and confirmed actions. He stated, "Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost," but offered no evidence of affected votes or election outcomes. Trump concluded by advocating for the SAVE America Act, a stalled Senate bill requiring government-issued photo IDs for voting and proof of citizenship for registration, which critics argue could disenfranchise voters.

Experts dispute Trump's assertions. Pamela Smith, president of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan organization, highlighted the multiple safeguards protecting U.S. elections, including pre-election testing of equipment and ballot chain-of-custody rules. She emphasized that paper ballots, present in nearly every state, serve as the most crucial safeguard for verifying voter intent.

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and that is the most important safeguard of all.

Trump's address largely sidestepped numerous judicial decisions, intelligence community reports, and expert opinions that found no direct foreign interference in the 2020 voting process. He also criticized media networks for not airing his speech live on their primary channels, a decision that media outlets noted was not unprecedented, as similar programming choices were made during a 2022 address by then-President Biden.

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China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files.

Regarding Trump's specific claim that China obtained U.S. voter registration records, PolitiFact noted that while China may have compromised election data, resulting in the acquisition of approximately 220 million U.S. voter files, this does not prove interference. Trump characterized this data acquisition as an "unprecedented election security nightmare."

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China obtained voter registration records. That doesn't prove interference.