{"id":4242,"date":"2026-07-17T14:36:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/?p=4242"},"modified":"2026-07-17T14:36:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:36:36","slug":"raising-old-grievances-trump-says-us-elections-like-a-third-world-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextstoryus.com\/?p=4242","title":{"rendered":"Raising old grievances, Trump says US elections like a ‘third-world country’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0questioned the integrity of U.S. elections ahead of the midterms, repeating\u00a0false claims about the 2020 election and alleging, without evidence, that China interfered in the vote in a July 16 speech to the nation. Trump, who has long baselessly claimed his 2020 election loss was rigged, introduced a trove of declassified documents in a push to cast doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections less than four months before the November midterm elections. “Our purpose in disclosing this information is not to weaken confidence in elections, but to earn that confidence by confronting vulnerabilities and correcting them very, very quickly,” Trump said from the East Room of the White House.<\/p>\n

Trump claimed the so-called “deep state” within the government during his first term concealed intelligence showing China’s interference during the 2018 midterm and 2020 presidential elections. “They fought like hell not to have it \u2012\u00a0Donald Trump to win \u2012 and for good reason,” Trump said, contradicting prior intelligence assessments that China did not try to interfere with the 2020 election. In an extraordinary allegation, Trump said Americans have for years been “blatantly lied to” by the government about the security of election infrastructure including voting machines and ballot-counting systems. He said U.S. adversaries, including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure. “They’re vulnerable and they’re easily compromised, and people within our government knew that,” Trump said, adding that “our government has long known these machines are extremely exposed to attacks.”<\/p>\n

Trump also said the Department of Homeland Security has identified 278,000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections.<\/p>\n

Trump used his long list of election claims \u2012 which were not immediately verifiable \u2012 to urge Republicans in Congress\u00a0to pass the SAVE America Act, which would overhaul voting in federal elections.<\/p>\n

In the November midterms, Republicans face the possibility of losing control of at least one chamber of Congress due to Trump’s low poll ratings and the difficulty the party holding the White House has historically faced in midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Since his 2024 reelection, Trump has worked to gain unprecedented federal control of elections through a series of moves, including firing key leaders of the federal\u00a0Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan panel that helps local election officials administer elections.<\/p>\n

Follow along below for more details on Trump’s claims, reactions and other related news.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen.\u00a0Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said President Donald Trump\u2019s primetime speech Thursday seems to be the “ceremonial kickoff” campaign to interfere in the crucial midterm elections come November.<\/p>\n

The senator’s critical comments came after the president introduced\u00a0a litany of declassified documents\u00a0in an attempt to sow doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections, with the midterms less than four months away.<\/p>\n

Whitehouse said Trump is\u00a0losing independent voters,\u00a0two years after the president\u00a0fared well with the group in his reelection victory.<\/p>\n

“Trump has badly lost independent voters, even MAGA is disheartened,” Whitehouse said in a written statement. “(Trump) is failing and unpopular, and he\u2019s dragging his party down with him in the midterms.”<\/p>\n

The lawmaker said Trump was trying to use the powers of his office to “taint an American election, backed by his coterie of creepy billionaires.”<\/p>\n

However, Whitehouse said that his colleagues “will be ready” to defend Americans’ right to vote.<\/p>\n

“We have systems to protect the vote and lawyers to defend those systems,” Whitehouse said. “The important thing right now is for the public to see and understand what this lawless and increasingly unhinged president is trying to do.”<\/p>\n

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Trump-backed GOP Senate candidate thinks Americans should be ‘alarmed’<\/h2>\n

Terry Collins<\/p>\n

Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, who’s also the state’s Republican Senate candidate, said on social media Thursday that Americans should be “alarmed” by their enemies’ attempts to prevent secure elections, echoing sentiments in a speech made by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

“Our right to free and secure elections should be protected relentlessly, and every American should be alarmed by our enemies\u2019 ability to disrupt our elections and jeopardize our right to vote,” Collins said in\u00a0a post on X. “Eighty-three percent of Americans support voter ID, and there is no time more important than now to pass the SAVE America Act and safeguard democracy.”<\/p>\n

Collins, who is\u00a0endorsed by President Donald Trump, handily won his\u00a0GOP Senate primary race\u00a0last month. Collins will challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Trump critic, in the general election on Nov 3.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

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U.S. election system is decentralized and that’s a good thing, expert says<\/h2>\n

Sarah D. Wire<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump repeatedly spoke Thursday night of the country\u2019s election infrastructure as a monolithic thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut together these disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is not defensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has worked through executive\u00a0actions in his second term to gain unprecedented control of election administration, saying his moves are necessary to prevent cheating and fraud.<\/p>\n

But election experts stress that the Constitution grants states authority over running elections, which has created a patchwork of different systems that uphold similar standards, like requiring paper ballots that can be hand-counted during audits, while being tailored to the community.<\/p>\n

That decentralization makes large scale fraud incredibly difficult, said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, a non-partisan think tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central action is still the state and local governments that are administering elections openly in ways that are very openly and verifiably and in bipartisan ways, you know. And all of this can be, and is, regularly audited, reviewed, witnessed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

State and local governments administer elections “very openly and verifiably and in bipartisan ways \u2026 and all of this can be, and is, regularly audited, reviewed, witnessed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

“The decentralization of our elections, and the\u00a0paper\u00a0trail that exists for all of our votes, and the variety of methods by which Americans can vote are all guardrails.\u201d<\/p>\n