Trump plans prime-time election speech as midterms near
The White House says the president will discuss the 2020 vote and voting machines in a Thursday night address before the midterms.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
4 min read
President Donald Trump is set to deliver a rare prime-time address Thursday night focused on elections, the White House said, putting voting rules and his false claims about 2020 back at the center of national politics. The speech comes less than four months before midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.
Al Jazeera reported that Trump announced the speech Tuesday and described it to reporters as “really big news,” while saying only that it would cover elections and other topics. The White House later said the address would include material related to the 2020 presidential election and what it called weaknesses in US voting machines.
What is scheduled
Trump is expected to speak from the White House at 9 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, according to Al Jazeera. Major US television networks are expected to carry the address after the administration requested airtime, and the speech is also set to stream on WhiteHouse.gov and the White House YouTube channel.
Administration officials told Al Jazeera that Trump plans to discuss newly declassified intelligence tied to investigations of the 2020 election. They also said he may address alleged openings in voting machines that could allow foreign cyber activity.
Trump has not offered many specifics. Asked whether the address would deal with voting machine integrity, he said it would involve that subject, according to Al Jazeera.
The 2020 backdrop
Trump lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, who won 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232 and received more than 81 million ballots compared with Trump’s 74 million, according to Al Jazeera. Biden also carried several swing states, including Georgia, Michigan and Arizona.
Trump has continued to claim, without evidence, that he won that election. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called the 2020 election the most secure in US history, and Al Jazeera reported that investigations, including some conducted by Trump allies, found no evidence that voting-machine manipulation or foreign cyber intrusions changed the result.
After the 2020 vote, Trump pressed Georgia’s secretary of state to find enough votes to overturn Biden’s victory there, according to Al Jazeera. Trump and allies later faced federal and state indictments over alleged efforts to reverse the election outcome; Al Jazeera reported that the federal case was dropped after Trump won the presidency again in 2024, while the Georgia case faltered after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was removed from it.
Why the timing draws scrutiny
The address will land about three and a half months before the November 3 midterms, when Republicans will try to protect narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress, Al Jazeera reported. Democrats are trying to take control amid public reaction to Trump’s second term.
A YouGov survey cited by Al Jazeera found this month that more than 57 percent of US voters disapprove of Trump’s second-term performance. Reuters reported in May that Trump had said the 2020 vote was stolen more than 107 times over the previous six months.
Trump has also linked recent losses by allies to fraud allegations. Al Jazeera reported that he claimed California’s June primary was “rigged” and hosted defeated Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt at the White House after attributing Pratt’s loss to voter fraud.
Voting rules fight
Trump has pushed for tighter voting rules since returning to office in 2025, Al Jazeera reported. Election administration is generally handled by states under the US Constitution, while critics accuse Trump of trying to exert more federal power over the process.
Al Jazeera reported that Trump supports measures such as the SAVE America Act, which would require in-person proof of citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate. Opponents say the measure could block eligible voters who lack those documents, while noncitizens are already barred from voting.
Trump has also sought limits on mail-in voting and has faced court setbacks, according to Al Jazeera. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that states may keep counting mail-in ballots after Election Day if they were postmarked by that date.
Democrats have urged caution over the address. Senator Mark Warner wrote on social media that Trump would use prime-time airtime to promote misleading election claims and justify interference in the midterms, while Senator Ben Ray Lujan pointed to Trump’s second impeachment and accused him of trying to subvert elections.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.