US President Donald Trump has accused China of carrying out a major compromise of American election data, claiming it represents the largest such breach in history.
He announced plans to declassify intelligence revealing “shocking vulnerabilities” in the US election system, further intensifying his long-standing allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
In a prime-time address to the nation from the White House, Trump stated, “Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files.”
The President alleged that China deliberately targeted the 2020 election to undermine it, and that elements of the “deep state” worked to conceal the breach.
“This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare,” Trump said.
He sharply criticized the nation’s election infrastructure, declaring that America’s election system “falls catastrophically short” of being accurate and fair.
Further accusing China, the US President said, “US spy agencies began learning about the compromise of voter registration files in 2020 when they discovered that tens of millions of voter data- think of that: tens of millions of voters’ data in 18 states have been bought, stolen, or hacked by China.”
Although the US accusing China of interfering in the election process is not new. A 2020 report by the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber, partially declassified in 2022, revealed that Chinese intelligence officials had accessed and analysed voter registration data from several American states as part of “public opinion analysis.”
However, more than 60 lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies after the 2020 election failed to produce any court ruling that established widespread fraud capable of changing the results.
Multiple recounts, audits, and investigations, including those conducted by Trump’s own Justice Department, also found no evidence of fraud on a scale that would have altered the election outcome.
The latest declassifications are expected to fuel renewed debate over election security and foreign interference as the US prepares for future electoral contests.
