Former US President Donald Trump has accused China of large-scale interference in the 2020 US presidential election and alleged that American intelligence agencies covered up the extent of Beijing's activities. In a nationally televised address on July 16, Trump claimed that declassified materials reveal what he called «shocking vulnerabilities» in the US election system and show that China illegally obtained approximately 220 million records containing data on American voters.
Trump asserted that the US election system is «absolutely vulnerable» to foreign hacking and manipulation, and announced the immediate release of intelligence data that he said proves critical weaknesses in election infrastructure. He also accused members of the intelligence community of concealing the scale of Beijing's operations and ordered the FBI, CIA, and the Department of Justice to investigate the alleged cover-up and dismiss those responsible.
During his address, Trump reiterated his call for Congress to pass the «SAVE America Act,» which would require photo identification and proof of citizenship for voter registration and significantly restrict mail-in voting. Democrats oppose the initiative, arguing it could make voting more difficult for many citizens. «No country can be great without honest and fair elections. If there is no trust, there is no greatness. Unfortunately, the system we have catastrophically fails to meet this standard,» Trump said.
However, the claims have been met with widespread skepticism and refutation. As Reuters reported, a US intelligence assessment released in 2021 concluded that no foreign country was able to affect the technical conduct of the 2020 presidential election. The document stated that no evidence was found of interference in voter registration, vote counting, or official results. While intelligence did confirm that China had for years collected information on American voters, political parties, and candidates for political analysis, it did not establish any alteration of voting outcomes.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner, quoted by The Guardian, noted that the security of the 2020 election had been confirmed by numerous court rulings, recounts, the FBI, the Justice Department, and bipartisan election commissions. Even Trump's own former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, had described the 2020 election as «the most secure in history.»
Before Trump's speech, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Chang, officially stated that China has never interfered and does not plan to interfere in US internal electoral processes. According to sources, the voter data Trump referenced is not classified — it is routinely purchased by political consultants and analytical firms, and the files themselves cannot be used to manipulate election results.
Part of the declassified documents Trump cited does not support his claims. One CIA document pertains to elections in Venezuela, and another explicitly states that vote-counting systems are «difficult to manipulate on a scale sufficient to change election results.» Trump's address came amid preparations for the US midterm congressional elections, where election security has again become a key element of Republican political campaigns.
Trump also threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of several television networks that refused to air his 25-minute prime-time address. NBC, ABC, and CNN declined to broadcast the speech live over concerns that the content could be politically partisan or provocative, though all three networks streamed it on their digital platforms, and some ABC affiliates chose to air it. Trump criticized the media's stance and called for the revocation of their licenses. «They knew what this address would be about. Because they don't like the topic, because they know how corrupt our election system is but don't want to disclose it, they and other media are part of the conspiracy,» Trump said. «Such fraud should mean the revocation of their broadcast licenses.»