President Donald Trump’s staff convinced him to tone down the primetime speech he gave on election integrity Thursday evening, after critics alleged it would make false claims about “stolen” elections. Leading up to the address, Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) demanded TV networks censor the speech, raising fears that Trump would say unproven or disproven claims about voter fraud, in light of his position that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.On Thursday night, Trump made a speech outlining concerns that declassified intelligence documents indicate China meddled in the 2020 election, a move he said was covered up by the “deep state” in the United States. The president’s speech was “pretty vanilla” compared to some of his previous claims, and followed counsel from his team to “not to be crazy,” according to Politico.
“There was going to be a lot of crazier s*** said,” a White House official told the outlet. “It was as on the rails as possible. … The senior team just talked and prepped him. I think they explained the way to be taken seriously is not to be crazy.”
.@POTUS: Compounding the travesty, the second set of documents we are releasing reveals that members of the Deep State in our intelligence agencies worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling—covering it up from both… pic.twitter.com/uFl4D39HaL— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
