That of President Donald Trump high-profile speech promising huge revelations about interference in the 2020 elections failed to deliver. On Thursday evening, the president made sweeping statements about China’s interference and cover-ups by the “deep state”, and repeated debunked claims about non-citizen voting. He cited as evidence a document filed on the White House website, although the records contain no evidence to support his claims.
To Trump’s loyal army, that didn’t matter. “It’s a grand slam from President Trump,” election denier Patrick Byrne told school shooting conspiracy theorist Alex Jones moments after the speech ended, adding, “It’s bigger than if they released JFK’s files.” (Byrne failed to mention that the Trump administration did this) free JFK files last year.)
Jones added on the show: “The deep state is shitting a brick right now. »
Conspiracy theorists claimed the speech would serve as the basis for Trump to sign into law the Insurrection Act, a law that could allow the president deploy the army to the polls in November, even if the scale of the legal capabilities of the army in a situation like this remains unclear.
Lara Logan, the former CBS journalist turned a star in the election denial community, called the “countdown” speech and written the that it was “the first salvo of a much larger plan.”
That plan, many election opponents say, has already seen Trump push Congress to pass the bill. SAVE America anti-voting lawand, if that fails, summon even greater powers.
“Trump is committed to doing whatever is necessary to secure the 2026 midterm elections, including invoking the Insurrection Act to secure polling places with military and federal law enforcement,” a member of the election denial group called Sarasota Patriots wrote on Telegram.
“Once Trump proves he has exercised all options before taking the Executive route, he will invoke the Insurrection Act and save the Republic,” Jacob Creech said. a popular conspiracy theorist known online as WarClandestine, wrote on X.
Wendy Rogers, Arizona state senator and well-known election conspiracy theorist, shared Creech’s message: while writing: “It’s called ‘laying the predicate’ and it’s EXACTLY what’s going to happen. You’re watching it in REAL TIME.”
Michael Flynn, the disgraced former national security adviser who was at the heart of the election denial movement, called for immediate arrests, without citing any evidence beyond Trump’s words. “The directors of the CIA and NSA during his first term should be immediately arrested for treason,” Flynn said. written the.
This is exactly what experts who have closely followed the election denial movement expected.
“Tonight, the White House used a tired strategy: cherry-picked intelligence and a flood of crude, discredited reports, disguised as national security revelations, to construct a pretext for lawless action,” says Alexandra Chandler, director of impact programs at the nonprofit Protect Democracy who has worked in the intelligence community for 13 years. “It wasn’t about 2020 or national security. It was about replacing the foot soldiers who will be asked to refuse the 2026 results if their side loses in November.”
The speech and publication of documents has drawn the ire of election officials and voting experts. “This is all bullshit,” wrote Cisco Aguilar, Nevada’s secretary of state, in an emailed statement to WIRED. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland congressman and former House impeachment manager, said Zétéo that Trump’s speech was “gibberish,” “chatter” and “almost self-debunking.”
But perhaps the most damning condemnation of all came from inside the Trump administration. John Solomon, the conservative journalist known for challenging the narrative around Trump’s ties to Russia, was recently named to a position within the White House to review documents that the administration said were linked to election interference. (Although Trump did not mention Russia’s role in election interference in his speech, Russia was cited in documents released by the White House in a statement. assessment that Russia was the only country attempting to interfere in the 2020 US election – in targeting former President Joe Biden.)
Thursday evening, Cleta Mitchell, a former Trump adviser and longtime election denier who runs the influential Election Integrity Network, praised Solomon for bringing White House information into the public sphere.
“John even recently took the unusual step of going to the government, into the belly of the beast, to make sure the jig was finally in place,” Mitchell said. written the. “No longer hide the truth about the Chinese Communist Party’s attack on the 2020 US election. John succeeded.” (Although not included in the White House documents, a 2021 Report of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded: “We assess that China did not engage in interference efforts and considered, but did not engage in, influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. “)
Speaking to journalists However, after the speech, Salomon failed to back up Trump’s claims. “I only know that the intelligence community has no evidence that a foreign power overturned a vote in 2020, ’22 or ’24,” he said. When asked if the 2020 election results were accurate, Solomon said, “I’m still researching it. »
Salomon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.