US President Donald Trump said during his primetime address on Thursday, July 16 that he will be releasing new information about election rigging02:27, 17 Jul 2026Updated 02:34, 17 Jul 2026US President Donald Trump has claimed China played a role in rigging the 2020 presidential election against him.‌Trump said during his primetime address on Thursday, July 16, that he is immediately declassifying and releasing "critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure."‌"This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes like levels never thought possible to hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference," he said.‌"Just as disturbingly, this vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you."Trump claimed that China illicitly gained access to information on US voters.‌"That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities. Which is exactly what was happening," Trump said.Voter information is generally accessible public record in most states.The White House had confirmed in a post on X prior to the address that Mr Trump's speech would contain "breaking news", while Trump himself said his address would contain "really big news" about election security.‌He told reporters on Tuesday: "It doesn't get bigger, because without free and fair elections, you don't have a country."For years, Trump has claimed the 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden was a result of voter fraud.Biden won the election with 306 electoral votes and 51.3% of the national popular vote. Trump secured 232 electoral votes and 46.8% of the popular vote.‌The US intelligence community produced a report that concluded there was no foreign interference in the 2020 election. This was done before Trump's first term ended in January 2021."We have no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results," the report, issued under Trump, said.Article continues below"We assess that it would be difficult for a foreign actor to manipulate election processes at scale without detection by intelligence collection on the actors themselves, through physical and cyber security monitoring around voting systems across the country, or in post-election audits," it said.The report was made public by the Biden administration in March 2021.