President Donald Trump will address the nation Thursday night to revisit his long-discredited claims about the 2020 election, setting the stage for what election security experts fear could be another wave of misinformation ahead of November's midterm elections. The 9 p.m. speech will focus on elections and voting machines, Trump told reporters Tuesday, promising "really, really big news" about what he called election integrity.
Trump's decision to use the presidential platform for conspiracy theories comes six years ago after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. In the weeks following that defeat, officials Trump himself appointed — including those running the Department of Justice, cybersecurity agencies, and intelligence departments — all confirmed the election was fair, legitimate, and free of major fraud or foreign interference.
A Pattern of False Claims
The president has offered only vague details about Thursday's speech. When asked if it would concern "election machines and integrity," he said it would "concern that subject" and added, "it doesn't get bigger because without free and fair elections, you don't have a country." White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested Wednesday that the speech's content could still change, saying "nobody knows yet what President Trump will ultimately say."
Trump has already embraced conspiracy theories about an international cabal penetrating U.S. voting machines — claims that have led to massive libel settlements when his allies repeated them in public. Fox News paid $787.5 million to settle one lawsuit over airing those claims. Conservative networks Newsmax and One America News also reached settlements with voting companies. A Denver jury found that Mike Lindell, whom Trump endorsed this week as a Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota, defamed a voting machine company employee by calling him a traitor.
Evidence Contradicts the President
An intelligence assessment completed five years ago on Jan. 7, 2021, during Trump's last days in office, found no foreign tampering with vote totals or election equipment in 2020. Trump himself signed a federal document last year declaring "there has been no evidence of a foreign power altering the outcome or vote tabulation in any United States election."
Trump and his allies lost dozens of court cases challenging the 2020 results, sometimes before judges he appointed himself. Numerous audits, recounts, and investigations — including several by Republicans — found no major problems. Trump's attorney general at the time, William Barr, said there were no signs of significant fraud. His appointee to run the agency watching for cyberattacks on election infrastructure, Chris Krebs, declared the 2020 election secure with no signs of tampering. Trump fired Krebs and later demanded an investigation of him upon returning to power last year.
Victoria Bassetti of States United, a nonpartisan group supporting state officials who run elections, said, "There has been six-plus years of consistent findings from the intelligence community and from everyone who's looked at it that there was no foreign interference in 2020, and our voting systems were secure and accurate. I suppose the president could come up with some new assertion or new conclusion. It would fly in the face of all the evidence."
Taxpayer-Funded Investigation Yields Nothing
Since returning to office, Trump launched a review of the 2020 vote. Federal agents seized voting records in Democratic-run Fulton County, Georgia, and Republican-run Maricopa County, Arizona. Trump tapped Kurt Olsen, a prominent lawyer in election conspiracy circles who was previously sanctioned by the Arizona Supreme Court for false statements in a lawsuit, to head the probe. A search warrant affidavit filed in the Fulton County case was full of old, debunked conspiracy theories, and the FBI reassigned hundreds of analysts to go through the material.
David Becker, a former Department of Justice lawyer who now leads the Center for Election Integrity & Research, said, "He has committed untold taxpayer resources. They've found nothing." Becker added that conspiracy theorists make sweeping allegations in public but lose regularly in court, where the threshold is whether there's any factual basis. "If someone's alleging a crime that occurred six years ago, we shouldn't be responding to their claims. We should be demanding they meet the burden of proof."
Loyalists Refuse to Acknowledge 2020 Outcome
Many of Trump's nominees have refused to directly answer who won in 2020. Jay Clayton, Trump's nominee to become the next national intelligence director, used careful language in his confirmation hearing Wednesday. "He had the most electoral votes," Clayton said of Biden. "He was declared the winner." When Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, pressed him on whether the person with the most electoral votes wins or loses, Clayton replied, "That's your characterization. I'm not going to continue to do this."
Democrats Warn of Midterm Interference
Democrats warned that Trump is trying to revive false claims about past stolen elections to delegitimize the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, where his Republican Party faces headwinds. Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said in a statement on X, "Tomorrow night, Trump is going to use a primetime address to stoke misleading claims about our elections in order to justify interfering in our midterms. It's on all of us to follow the facts and not accept his constant stream of misdirections and lies."
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim said in a post on X, "Trump is again trying to drum up baseless election conspiracies ahead of the November elections. Americans are tired of endless war, skyrocketing gas prices, and a president that isn't looking out for them. Voters will make their voices heard, whether Trump wants them to or not."
On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance bristled when asked if he'd encourage Trump to stay focused on November's midterm elections rather than relitigate past elections. "You're basically assuming an answer in the very question that you ask," Vance said. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he doesn't know what Trump will say but added, "the only thing I can tell you is that we are focused on the 2026 election, at least I am, and I think most of my colleagues are."
Primetime presidential addresses are typically reserved for major milestones or nationally significant events. Trump last delivered one this year in April to speak on the Iran war, saying the U.S. would accomplish its objectives "very shortly" and that "the hard part is done, so it should be easy." The war has dragged on and strikes between the U.S. and Iran have intensified this week. He also delivered a politically charged primetime speech last year in December blaming Democrats for the challenging economic climate.
It wasn't clear if TV networks were planning to air the speech, or to what extent. Messages to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and MS NOW asking about coverage plans weren't immediately returned.
Why This Matters:
Trump's decision to use a presidential address for debunked election conspiracies threatens to undermine public confidence in democratic institutions at a moment when voters prepare for November's midterm elections. Every official Trump appointed to oversee election security in 2020 confirmed the vote was legitimate, yet the president continues to spread falsehoods that have already cost his allies hundreds of millions of dollars in defamation settlements. The speech comes as federal agents conduct a taxpayer-funded investigation that election experts say has found no evidence of wrongdoing. By platforming conspiracy theories that courts have repeatedly rejected, Trump risks eroding trust in the electoral process itself — the foundation of democratic governance. Democrats warn this isn't about past grievances but about laying groundwork to contest future results if they don't favor Republicans, a pattern that makes free and fair elections harder to administer and defend.