President Donald Trump will deliver a primetime address Thursday at 9 p.m. that he says will focus on elections, escalating his push for Republicans to pass restrictive federal voting rules ahead of November's midterm elections. The speech comes as Trump continues to amplify baseless claims about voter fraud despite repeated investigations finding no evidence to support them.
Asked Tuesday for a preview, Trump offered little detail but called it "really big news." "It doesn't get bigger, because without free and fair elections, you don't have a country," Trump said in the Oval Office. He refused to elaborate further, saying he wanted to "save it" for the moment, though he added, "We'll be discussing other things, too," and, "It's going to be a very big announcement."
A Pattern of Unfounded Claims
Trump's preoccupation with voting fraud dates back at least to 2016, when he refused to say whether he'd accept defeat to Democrat Hillary Clinton. After winning, he convened a voting integrity commission to support his claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote. The commission disbanded without uncovering any such evidence.
Four years later, after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump again claimed cheating and focused on Biden's narrow win in Georgia. Trump called the state's secretary of state and pressured him to "find 11,780 votes," just enough to overturn Biden's victory in the state. Trump, along with more than a dozen allies, was indicted in the state, though the charges were later dropped.
Repeated audits and reviews — many run by Republicans, including Trump's own then-attorney general — have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020. Before winning in 2024, Trump was again laying the groundwork to claim cheating if he lost.
Targeting Election Systems
On Monday, Trump repeated baseless claims of voter fraud in the Los Angeles primary race for mayor. During an interview with conservative outlet Newsmax, Trump said Republican Spencer Pratt lost his primary bid because of fraud, citing in part California's slow vote count. Federal prosecutors said they were opening fraud investigations in the state last month after Trump drew attention to the claim.
Earlier this year, FBI agents raided elections offices in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing materials from the 2020 election. Tulsi Gabbard, then Trump's director of national intelligence, traveled to Atlanta to oversee the execution of the search warrant.
Trump has widely taken aim at states that allow voters to submit ballots by mail. He said he called a U.S. attorney in California and demanded scrutiny of the governor's primary last month as votes were being counted. Last week, Trump ousted the remaining members of the federal Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan panel that resisted his efforts to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.
Democratic Response
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, campaigning in Georgia for Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and governor's candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, said Tuesday that Trump's approach was "for losers." "I think people are exhausted by having conversations about elections that happened six years ago, that we have the answer to," Moore said. "He continues to bring this up because he cannot get out of his mind that he actually could have lost."
Trump has made voting regulation a core issue during his second term, frequently declaring that he won the White House "three times" and demanding legislation that would require voter ID and sharply limit mail-in voting. Facing midterm races that will decide control of Capitol Hill, Trump has stirred new claims to cast doubt on election results that could challenge his power in Washington.
Thursday's address appears set to amplify election lies before an audience of millions in an effort to boost Republican prospects before midterms that could hobble Trump for the rest of his term. Trump has used the primetime presidential address before, including one in December when he sought to blame the challenging economic climate on Democrats.
Why This Matters:
Trump's continued promotion of debunked election fraud claims threatens the foundation of democratic participation at a time when voting access remains contested across the country. His demands for restrictive federal voting rules — including strict voter ID requirements and sharp limits on mail-in voting — would disproportionately affect working families, elderly voters, and communities of color who rely on accessible voting methods. The dismantling of the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission and the deployment of federal law enforcement to investigate baseless fraud allegations represent an unprecedented use of executive power to undermine election administration. With midterm elections approaching, Trump's primetime address could further erode public confidence in democratic institutions, making it harder for millions of Americans to trust that their votes will be counted fairly and that election outcomes reflect the will of the people rather than political interference.